


Horror High

by Nightshade98



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, High School AU, Kara is sweet and pure and does not deserve what I've done to her, Young Lena is a lanky gay mess, but like the worst case senario, kind of?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-20 21:34:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13726413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightshade98/pseuds/Nightshade98
Summary: Lena just wanted her week to be over.  Kara was going to bring her lunch, then she was going to spend a weekend not thinking of the asshole investors she had been dealing with all week.  The last thing she needed was to wake up in the body of her high school self.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Set sometime after season 2, definitely before season 3 (considering I never actually watched it). I have many headcannons, and I needed to put them somewhere. So here we are.

Under the blanket of night, a sole figure picked their way through the wreckage of what was once a mountain bunker. Progress was slow, but they didn’t mind; meticulous work was all part of their job.

Although there was evidence of many interesting things scattered around, they were looking for one thing in particular. Just a small piece, some blood, a single fiber, was all that was needed for their plan to work. A general map had been provided, so the figure knew where their prize had started; however, a kryptonite-based nuclear explosion had a tendency to move things around a bit.

Two hours into picking through the rubble, and they were getting a little frustrated. But they wouldn’t give up. They couldn’t. The plan had to work. Too much time, too much planning had gone into it to give up now.

Taking a deep breath, they got back to work. After making their way around a particularly large chunk of rock, something caught their eye. They took a step closer to get a better look at what was half-hidden under a sheet of warped metal. Confirming their suspicion, a slow smile spread across their face. They found it, and now, everything would fall into place.

 

**XXXXX**

 

Lena watched as the latest investor huffed his way out of her office, practically slamming the door behind him. With a heavy sigh, she let her forehead rest against her desk. She had no idea how some of these men could be so dense as to not realize that this was no longer her brother’s company. Their outdated and bigoted views had no place in the new L-Corp. She just wished someone would tell them that _before_ they came storming into her office.

“Miss Luthor?” Lena picked up her head to see Jess peeking her way into the office with a worried expression on her face.

“Yes Jess?” Lena aimed a clearly forced smile at her secretary.

“That… _lovely_ man was your last meeting before lunch.” Jess told her, grimacing as she did. “I just wanted to see if you would like me to pick you up something?”

“Oh, there’s no need.” Her secretary’s kindness would never cease to surprise her. “Kara offered to bring me something.”

A knowing smile appeared on Jess’s face, a look that immediately had Lena on edge. “Oh? I thought Miss Danvers was normally busy on Friday afternoons?”

“She said her normal meeting was rescheduled to earlier in the week. Something about her boss going on vacation today.” Lena said carefully. “And after the week I’ve had, it’ll be good to see a friendly face.”

“Of course Miss Luthor.” That smile was still firmly in place. “I’ll make sure no one tries to interrupt your lunch date.”

A rather undignified squawk came from Lena, but before she could reprimand Jess, the other woman had ducked out and firmly shut the door. Lena shook her head at Jess’s antics. The other woman seemed to have the wrong idea about her and Kara’s relationship, no matter how many times Lena had tried to correct her.

There was definitely no fluttery feeling that appeared in Lena’s stomach at the word “date”. Kara was her friend, and one of the only ones that Lena had. She was not going to mess that up by allowing “feelings” to complicate things.

In her distracted state staring down at her desk, Lena didn’t notice the slow creep of light purple gas coming through her vents until it was far too late. Once the tendrils appeared in her vision her head snapped up, mouth opened to call out to anyone, but the gas seemed to rush into her mouth and nostrils as if it had a mind of its own. Before a single noise could escape the CEO, her form shuddered and she collapsed onto the floor.

 

**XXXXX**

 

“Lena!” A series of sharp knocks roused the woman from her sleep. “Lena, come on, you need to get up.”

She groaned and pulled the blanket further over her head. Another set of knocks sounded.

“Lena, come on, if you don’t get up we’ll be late for school. And I know you want your perfect record to stay, you know, perfect.”

She let out another groan into her pillow. Would five more minutes really be that bad? Then the words sunk in.

She shot up in her bed. School? She had to have heard that wrong.

Cautiously, she swung her legs off the side of the bed and looked around the room she was in. It looked familiar somehow, but her tired brain just couldn’t figure out why. Figuring whoever was at her door could explain, she took a single step towards the door before tripping over her own feet. After taking a few stumbling steps, she managed to catch herself on the door itself, furrowing her brows. Something was seriously wrong.

Taking a deep breath, she took a step back, and slowly opened the door. As the mystery person became visible, Lena had to choke back a scream. Standing there, arms crossed over his chest, was Lex.

“Jeez, I know you’re a heavy sleeper, but you have to be better about your alarms.” He shook his head and offered her a smile. “I can't wake you up every morning, Lee.”

Lena was still frozen in place at the sight of her brother. He was younger than the last time she saw him, probably no older than 18. He still had a full head of dark hair. His eyes were clear and kind, no trace of the mania that gripped him the last time he and Lena had spoken.

“Lee?” He was now looking at her worriedly. “You okay?” A hand reached out towards her forehead.

“I’m fine.” She snapped up and away from his hand. “Sorry, just still waking up.”

Lena’s voice didn’t sound right. Gone was the smooth, deep tone she had perfected as she aged. In its place was a too-high squeak.

“If you’re sure?” He still looked worried.

She cleared your throat. “Yeah.” The squeak was gone, but her voice was still far too high. “How long do I have?”

“We need to leave in an hour.” A smile took the place of the worried look.

“Okay, I’ll be ready.” Lena assured, then took a step back and slowly closed the door.

_Don’t panic. Don’t panic._ She chanted in her head, head snapping around the room. _Her_ room. Her room from when she was a kid. That’s why it looked so familiar.

Her eyes landed on the bathroom door along one wall, and she quickly walked over. Taking a deep breath, she flipped on the lights and looked in the mirror, holding back a shout of surprise. There, looking back at her, was herself as a teenager.

Lena leaned forward to get a better look, raising a hand to her face. Shaky fingers made contact with her cheek, and the mirror image followed. So it was real.

She looked down at herself, and almost let out a hysterical laugh. She was definitely back in her teenage body. As an adult, she always tried to block out her awkward teenage years. She had hit a growth spurt early in high school, and hadn’t really grown into the height until she got to college. So standing here with those too-long limbs again was a reminder she could have lived without.

It may have been a touch vain, but she was glad her features were similar to herself as an adult. Sure, her cheekbones weren’t as pronounced, and she had a more youthful appearance overall, but it was nice to recognize something about herself.

Shaking off the surprise, she tried to figure out what was going on. It had to be a stress-induced dream, right? While her brain was doing a good job at the setting, there were some obvious problems, the biggest being Lex. He was a decade older than Lena, and yet when she saw him there were close enough in age to be attending the same school. The same high school, Lena assumed based on their apparent ages.

Lena decided playing along for the time being would be the safest bet. She’d wake up at some point, then she could forget about this whole experience.

Nodding to herself in the mirror, she made her way back into her room and proceeded to get ready for school. At least her brain remembered her old fashion sense, she noted as she picked out a nice blouse and some dark jeans.

Soon enough she was headed downstairs to grab something to eat. Reaching the kitchen she almost fell over herself once again. Sitting there at the kitchen table, along with Lex, were her parents. Lillian was typing out something on her phone while Lionel read the paper with a raised brow.

Steeling herself, she walked into the kitchen and grabbed some juice from the fridge.

“Nice of you to join us.” Lionel’s voice sounded from behind her, and she turned to see him smirking as he continued to read.

“She slept through all her alarms.” Lex chuckled as he spread some jam on his toast.

“Yes, I heard your brother had to wake you up.” Lillian remarked as she set her phone down and looked up at Lena.

“Just one of those mornings.” Lena shrugged and forced a smile.

“Hmm.” Lillian hummed as she continued to stare at her daughter.

“She’s just lucky I was there to wake her up.” Lex said with a smile to let Lena know he wasn’t being too serious. “What are you going to do next year when I’m at college?”

“Yes, what ever will I do without you?” Lena rolled her eyes and let out a chuckle. It was shocking how easy it was to slip back into the old banter with Lex. Back before his vendetta almost got him killed. Before his true colors were exposed.

“You’ll just have to be more responsible.” Lillian interjected, fixing Lena with a hard look. “Your brother can't look out for you forever.”

“Oh leave her be, dear.” Lionel sighed. “She’s fine. It’s not like it’s an every day thing.”

Lena turned back to the fridge to put the container of juice away and took the opportunity to take another deep breath. She had forgotten what this was like. Her brother’s teasing, her mother’s harsh criticism, her father’s support.

“You ready?” Lena turned to see Lex standing.

“Yes.”

She followed her brother out of the kitchen towards the garage.

“You know she just wants what’s best for you.” Lex commented as they got into the car. “She just wants you to be the best you can be.”

“I’m a kid, I think I’m entitled to a few mistakes here and there.” Lena muttered, staring out the window. There was far more she wished she could say about her mother, but even if this was just a dream, she didn’t need to cause any problems.

“Yes, but we’re Luthors.” Lex reminded her as he pulled out onto the street and began the drive. “We’re held to a higher standard than the average person, remember?”

“Yeah.” Lean muttered before furrowing her brow at the landscape they were driving past. This didn’t look like Metropolis. They were practically in the middle of nowhere.

“Look, I know the move was rough on us.” Lex began, and Lena’ head whipped around to give him a questioning look. “But Father needed to be in Midvale for business. And Mother didn’t want him to be away from us for that long. It was what was best.”

“I suppose.” Lena responded distracted. Why did Midvale sound so familiar?

“So please try to keep a happy face for their sake, okay?” Lex asked. “You only have one more year after this, then you can come and join me in Metropolis again.”

“Right.” Lena agreed, still trying to remember why this town was pulling at a memory in her.

“Good.” Lex put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Now did you want to sit in the car all day, or can we go in?”

“What?” Her head shot up and she saw a medium-sized building in front of them with a sign that declared this was “Midvale High School”.

Lex just laughed and got out of the car, grabbing his bag as he went. Lena felt the most bittersweet feeling come over her. It was so good to see Lex like this again, happy and sane and the brother she remembered. But she knew what was lurking just underneath the surface. In both him and her mother.

Shaking her head, she grabbed her own bag and followed after her brother. Almost immediately she was flanked with two tall blonde girls in cheerleading uniforms.

“Hey Lena.” The one on her left smiled at her.

“How was your weekend?” The right one asked.

“Fine.” Lena responded carefully. “Nothing really special.”

“It’s too bad you couldn’t come to Samantha’s party with us.” Left sighed.

“Like, we get that family night is important and all, but it’s too bad you couldn’t get out of it.” Right agreed.

“My parents can be strict about those kinds of things.” Lena offered, knowing that was the truth at least.

“Well, you’re still coming to the game tonight, right?” Left asked.

“Oh, I suppose.” Lena answered, still trying to just follow along.

“And you can come to the next party.” Right said. “You know Samantha will be throwing one again in a week or so.”

“Hopefully.” Lena humored.

“And maybe you can bring your brother?” Left tried to sound nonchalant about it, but Lena was trained by the boardroom. She could hear the hope in the blonde’s voice.

“Um…”

“What’s this about me?” Lena looked forward to see Lex smirking at the three of them.

“Oh!” The girl became flustered. “Just, if you wanted to come along to a party with us, you could, you know?”

Lena had to hold back a snort. She knew her brother was charismatic, but the last thing she wanted to see was high school girls fawning over him.

“Sounds like fun.” He smirked at the two girls. “See you later Rebecca.” He nodded towards the girl on Lena’s left. “Tiffany.” Then the girl on her right.

After he left, the two let out identical sighs. “We know it’s weird for you to hear, but your brother is dreamy.”

“Please never say that in front of me again.” Lena begged and started walking towards the door.

“Sorry, but it’s true.” Tiffany agreed.

“I don’t care.” Lena told them.

Whatever the two girl’s response was going to be was cut off by the loud slam of lockers.

To Lena’s surprise, Rebecca let out a dark chuckle. “Looks like they’ve started early this morning.”

“Eh, the freak deserves it.” Tiffany shrugged.

An uneasy feeling settled in Lena’s stomach, and she started walking towards the source of the noise. She had a feeling she was in the right spot when she reached a circle of kids all facing inwards, laughter ringing out among them.

“I-I’m sorry.” A meek voice came from the middle of the ring. Lena started to push through the crowd to see what was going on. To her surprise, most of the kids moved to let her through easily.

“Next time, freak, stay out of my way.” A boy’s voice snapped.

Lena finally reached the front of the group and couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped her. There, cowering against the lockers, was Kara Danvers. Younger, of course, but something in Lena immediately recognized her.

“Of c-course.” Kara agreed quickly, arms wrapped firmly around herself.

“Good.” The boy, a football player if the jersey was anything to go by, snapped at her again. As he passed her, he shoulder checked the cowering girl. To Lena’s surprise, Kara was thrown back into the lockers once more, pain evident on her face.

But that couldn’t be right. Lena knew, no matter how hard the other woman tried to hide it, that Kara was Supergirl. Honestly, she wasn’t sure how she ever believed they were two separate people. “I was getting coffee with Kara”? Really? As if a superhero sat around and drank coffee with reporters like a normal person.

So seeing the hero smack into the lockers from a push from a jock was odd. The other students began to break up once the show seemed to be over, and Lena was about to take a step towards Kara to check on her when Tiffany and Rebecca appeared beside her.

“How pathetic.” Tiffany sneered at Kara.

“I still can't believe you thought you could just pretend to be one of us.” Rebecca cut in.

“Filthy alien.” Tiffany spat, and Lena saw Kara cringe. That’s when she saw the metal band secured around her wrist. Sitting in the middle of the band was an eerily familiar glowing green stone.

“It’s a good thing the Luthors came to town when they did.” Tiffany said as she put an arm around Lena’s shoulders. “They told us what you are, and made sure you couldn’t hurt any of us.”

“I- I wouldn’t-” Kara looked up with tears in her eyes before Rebecca cut her off.

“Like we’d ever believe you, freak.” She huffed. “Let’s go Lena.”

Body on full autopilot, Lena let herself be led away from the cowering girl. She couldn’t believe it. Her family did that to Kara? And these girls were giving her credit. She thought she was going to be sick.


	2. Chapter 2

Lena let the two girls lead her away, still reeling from all she had learned.  What kind of horrible nightmare had this turned into?  Kara was the kindest person Lena had ever met.  How could people treat her like this?

She barely noticed as Rebecca split from them with a wave.  Tiffany was babbling on about something, but Lena couldn’t find it in herself to care.  Soon the two made it to a classroom and Tiffany led her inside.

They had apparently come in just before the bell rang, as most of the seats were already filled.  Lena glanced curiously at an empty area in the back corner of the classroom, but was quickly ushered into a seat by her companion.

Just as she sat the bell rang and her teacher entered the classroom, calling for order.  Not a moment later Kara slipped into the room.  The teacher shot a glare at the poor girl, and she muttered a quick apology before scampering back to the empty back corner, followed by several snickers from her classmates.

Lena glanced back, and the empty space suddenly made sense.  Kara sat in the back corner, as far from the other students as possible.  And the other students, in turn, left at least one empty seat between themselves and her on all sides.  

Lena wanted nothing more than to stand up and yell at these children.  What right did they have to treat Kara like this?  So she was an alien?  She was a better person than anyone else Lena had ever met in her life.  She was kind and so, so good.  If humans were more like her, then the world would have been a better place.  Kara was also the strongest person Lena had ever met.  While she may not be partial to the details, Lena knew Kara had lost her whole planet at a young age.  The fact that she still chose to become a hero and help people was amazing.

The teacher’s monotonous voice shocked Lena out of her thoughts, and she flushed when she realized she was still looking back towards Kara.  She quickly snapped her attention back towards the front of the room and tried to focus on the lecture.  Of course, when she realized he was teaching her basic calculus, Lena couldn’t help but deflate slightly.  She could probably teach this class in her sleep.

“Hey,” Lena glanced over at Tiffany questioningly, “you okay?”

Lena just nodded, not trusting her voice right now.

“I know it sucks to have her in the class, but we can’t get her taken out of the school.”  Tiffany huffed quietly, glancing back at the teacher to make sure she wasn’t going to be caught talking in class.  “I mean, if your family couldn’t get it to happen, it’s just not going to, I guess.”  

“Right.”  Lena murmured, the feeling of dread taking hold once more.  She turned her gaze onto the notebook in front of her as if focusing on taking notes, not wanting to talk about this anymore.  She may have been curious as to what was going on around here, but Lena could only take so much at once.

Eventually the bell rang, and Lena found herself moving mechanically towards her next class, which turned out to be some high level chemistry course.  History came after that, and it turned out Lena shared that class with both Rebecca and Kara.  Just like in math, the girl settled herself into the back corner and avoided any eye contact with her classmates.

Soon Lena found herself headed to the cafeteria, flanked by both her cheerleader “friends”.  She was glad that even if she was entirely in the dark as to what was going on around here, her body seemed to know where to take her throughout the day.

Settling down with a tray of food, Lena glanced around the room.  The school seemed small, probably only a few hundred kids in total in attendance.  Considering how remote the town seemed, that made sense.  At least Lena finally figured out why Midvale sounded so familiar.  She had heard Kara mention her hometown in passing before, but had never really talked about her childhood.  Lena could only hope her real time in high school was the exact opposite from this version.

“You seem really out of it today, Lena.”  She turned to look at Tiffany giving her an odd look.  It wasn’t the concern she had seen from Lex earlier today, but it was close.

“Just tired, I think.”  Lena dismissed, picking up an apple off her tray and biting into it just to give her something to do.  It tasted just like an ordinary apple, and Lena wasn’t sure if she should be surprised by that or not.

“I hope that isn’t the start of an excuse to not come to our game.”  Tiffany scoffed.  “You always skip out on us.”

“I said I’d come, didn’t I?”  Lena mused, glancing back around her table.  She noticed that she was sitting with several cheerleaders and a few football players.  The game certainly explained why they were all in uniform.  And it had the added bonus of letting Lena know what clique she apparently belonged to.

“True.”  The blonde shrugged.

“Lena,” she glanced up to see Lex standing next to her table, hands in his pockets, “you free to talk for a moment?”

“Hey Lex.”  Rebecca perked up at the appearance of Lena’s brother.

“Hey.”  He greeted back, but didn’t take his eyes off of Lena.

“Yeah.”  Lena agreed with furrowed brows.  Something seemed off, and it was making her nervous.

“Come on.”  Lex turned and didn’t give Lena much of a choice but to follow him.   He didn’t lead her far, just around a corner into an empty hallway.

“Lex?”

“I heard you had a run-in with that… thing earlier today?”  Lex spat out.

“What?”  Lena was shocked at the sudden mood change.

“The alien they keep around.”  He clarified.  “The PR stunt?”

“Kara?”  Lena asked finally catching up.

“If you insist on using its name.”  He scoffed.

“She was being pushed around this morning.”  Lena explained.  “I was just curious what the commotion was.”

His hands suddenly came up to grip her shoulders.  “Did she do anything to you?  Say anything?”

“What?  No!”  Lena was becoming scared.  The mania was back in her brother’s eyes.  She had prayed she wouldn’t ever have to see that look again, but here it was, clear as day.  Earlier today she was glad Lex seemed better, happier, sane.  The sudden realization that he was never okay, that the mania was always there, was like a bucket of cold water being dumped on her head.

“I heard you were watching her in your first period.”  Lex’s eyes kept flashing between hers.

“Oh, that.”  Lena tried to let out an airy chuckle.  “I was spacing out in class, and I guess I was looking towards the windows she sits near.”  The manic look was receding a bit.  “I didn’t sleep very well last night.”  She offered what she hoped was a calming smile.

“Do you promise?”  Now he just looked desperate.

“Yes Lex, I promise she didn’t do anything to me.”  Lena said slowly.  “She hasn’t said a word to me, hasn’t touched me, hasn’t even looked at me.”

“Good.  Good.”  He sighed and closed his eyes.  When he looked back up he was the normal, happy kid from that morning.  “If it does, let me know.  We can finally rid this school of its alien problem.”

“Of course.”  Lena agreed, fighting down a wave of nausea.

“Sorry to grab you from your friends.”  He offered an apologetic smile and rubbed at the back of his head.  If she hadn’t just witnessed the bout of anger from him, she would be fooled by the innocent act.  “I just needed to know my little sister was okay.”

“It’s fine.”  Lena assured him, forcing a smile.  “I was about to get up anyway.  I need to talk to my calc teacher about some advanced reading.”  She offered an excuse.  Plus, if she was going to be stuck here for any amount of time she wasn’t going to sit in that class bored to death every day.

“Of course, you nerd.”  He chuckled at her answer.  “Well, don’t let me stop you.”

“See you after school.”  Lena nodded farewell to the boy and started walking away from the cafeteria.

She walked distractedly through the halls, trying to make any sense of what was going on.  She was clearly in some distorted version of her past, but how?  Was it a dream, or some alternate universe?  And what had caused it?  The last thing Lena remembered was waiting for Kara to show up for their lunch plans (plans, not date,  _ Jess _ ).  So how did she end up here?  Wherever here was.

Deep in thought, Lena didn’t notice the person in front of her until it was too late.  She ran smack into the other person, causing her to fall flat onto her backside.  She heard a rush of air from in front of her, and figured the other person was also knocked over.

“I am so sorry.”  Lena offered as she scrambled to stand.  Of course, not being used to her younger body, it took far longer than it should have, and lacked any semblance of grace.

Not getting a response, Lena glanced down to the unfortunate soul she managed to barrel into, startling when she saw Kara on the floor, eyes wide with fear.  As Lena straightened up fully, she saw the other girl shrink further into herself.

“Are you okay?”  Lena asked, concerned at the lack of response from the blonde.

“I’m sorry.  I’m sorry.”  Kara quickly started to apologize, scrambling to gather all the papers she had scattered when she fell.  “I’m so sorry.  I should have been paying better attention.  Please, I’m so sorry.”

“Hey, hey.”  Lena crouched down and put a hand on Kara’s shoulder.  Of course, when the girl flinched as if she had been burned, Lena quickly raised her hand off of her.  “Sorry.  I shouldn’t have assumed that was okay.”

Really, Lena should have known that physical contact was probably out of the question considering how the other students treated Kara.

“It’s my fault.”  Kara quickly assured, still not looking at Lena.  “Not looking where I was going.  Stupid.”

“Hey, I was the one not paying attention.”  Lena offered a smile, even if the girl wouldn’t look at her.

Realizing she wasn’t getting anywhere, Lena sighed and began helping to gather the dropped papers.  The least she could do was try to resolve this as quickly as possible so no one would find them.  Kara was sure to be blamed, and Lena would not be the reason Kara was tormented.

“Oh no, you don’t have to-” Kara tried to stop her, but Lena cut her off.

“It was my fault, this is the least I can do.”

“Really-”

“Really, I want to help.”  Lena cut off again, looking up and finally,  _ finally _ getting to meet Kara’s gaze.  Her eyes were still such a beautiful shade of blue.  And  _ wow _ , where did that thought come from?

“Okay.”  Kara’s voice was so small, and still hesitant.  She was waiting for the other shoe to drop, Lena assumed.  The urge to yell at the student body came back in full force.

Turning her attention back to the paper in front of her, Lena was surprised to see rather high-level calculus scrawled across the pages.  Not only that, but there were several red check marks, indicating that all the answers were correct.  She must have been staring at the papers for too long, as Kara’s hesitant voice spoke up.

“I take extra math.”  Lena glanced up to see Kara staring at the papers in Lena’s hands.  “I was taught basic calculus before, so I’m in an additional class.”

“Wow.”  Lena glanced back down at the paper.  “This would be high level for a college student.  You must have mastered calculus when you were like 12.”

“Yeah…” A sad sigh came from Kara, and Lena snapped her gaze up to see Kara staring intently at the floor.  Then it hit Lena.  At that age, Kara would have still been on Krypton.

“I’m so sorry.”  Lena quickly apologized.  “I didn’t mean…”

“It’s okay.”  Kara assured, still not meeting Lena’s eyes.  “Um, thank you for…” Kara gingerly reached for the papers in Lena’s hands.

“It was no problem.”  Lena assured again.  “I’m sorry again for running right into you.  That’ll teach me to daydream in the hallways.”

Kara actually let out a little giggle at that, and Lena felt her heart leap into her throat.  “I should go.”  Kara let out another sad sigh.  “Wouldn’t want anyone to see you talking to the resident freak.”

The self-deprecation shocked Lena into silence, and Kara managed to sneak away before she shook it off.

“You’re not a freak.”  Lena tried to call after her, but the girl was long-gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry Lena, thinking a girl's eyes are really pretty and getting flustered when she laughs are definitely *not* indications of having "feelings". (Spoiler alert, you have "feelings").
> 
> This and the next chapter are a little shorter, but there were good natural breaks, so I'm just posting them both at once.


	3. Chapter 3

To Lena’s disappointment, she didn’t see Kara for the rest of the day.  And her afternoon classes weren’t any more interesting that her morning ones.  Sure, she didn’t remember everything from high school, but the basics of most subjects were still there.  So there were many times she just sat in class staring into space.

Soon she was headed home, but not before Tiffany and Rebecca cornered her one last time about the game.  Those girls were annoyingly persistent, and Lena wondered how she even came to be friends with them.  Just like in her real high school days, she seemed to be more focused on academics than friends, so just how she came to join the “popular clique” she couldn’t fathom.

“Lee.”  She glanced over from the car window and gave a noise of acknowledgement to Lex.  “I want to apologize for earlier.”

“You were just worried about me.”  Lena brushed off, figuring this was about their lunch conversation.  She hated that she couldn’t bring herself to reprimand his actions, but the memory of his too-intense gaze was still fresh in her mind.

“You’ve just always given the alien such a wide berth.”  Lex explained.  “And you’ve always agreed that the school needs to get rid of it.  The fact that all of the sudden there were two incidents, it made me jump to the worst conclusions.”

“I really don’t think she has it in her to do anything to me.”  Lena tried.  “She’s terrified of basically everyone.  So no need to worry.”

“I’ll be watching it until you’re safely out of the state and with me.”  Lex growled.  “I don’t care how it acts, that thing is not human, and cannot be trusted.”

Lena felt her shoulders slump in defeat.  Lex couldn’t be swayed, not now, not ever.  She wasn’t sure why she thought she could change his mind.

It wasn’t long after that Lex pulled the car into the garage and she quickly made her way to her bedroom.  Knowing she had to be back at school at 6, Lena pulled out the little homework she had that she didn’t finish in her other classes, and powered through it.  A quick half an hour later, Lena was finished.  She glanced at her laptop, and went to pull open the Internet to try to learn more about this nightmare-world she was trapped in.

A sudden thought stopped her from typing anything.  If this was anything like her real childhood, there was no way that anything she did on her computer would stay private.  Her mother had been so controlling back then that there were monitoring programs added to all her devices.  Sure, as a teenager she managed to deactivate most of them out of spite, but that had taken time.  Time that Lena had no interest in wasting this time around.

Letting loose a little growl, Lena just threw on some documentary and unceremoniously flopped down onto her bed.  As she let the narrator’s voice fade into the background, Lena began to plan.  It didn’t take long to formulate something that should have worked, she just needed to check on something first.

Closing her computer, Lena made her way to Lex’s room and knocked lightly.  It didn’t take long for him to appear in the doorway, eyebrow raised in question.

“You’re not going to the game tonight, are you?”  Lena asked, trying to sound casual about it.

Lex just chuckled and shook his head.  “You know sports aren’t really my thing.  I still have no idea why you’re going.”

“Tiffany and Rebecca wouldn’t stop bothering me about it.”  Lena groaned, glad that was true, at least.  The best lies, after all, had aspects of the truth thrown in.

“Fair enough.”  Lex shrugged.  “But I don’t know why you hang around them either.”  Neither did Lena, but that didn’t matter at this point.  “I know we helped expose the alien, but the hero worship these people have for our family is a bit much sometimes.”

“They think we saved them.”  Lena pointed out, hating that it was true.

“I mean, we did.”  Lex agreed.  “Anyway, you’re not going to talk me into going, so you can give up now.”

“Right.”  Lena sheepishly smiled at him.  “Had to try.”

“Have fun hanging out with the commoners.”  Lex teased before retreating back into his room.

Lena smiled to the closed door, thanking the universe that she was apparently going alone.  That would make things much easier.  She quickly spun on heel and headed downstairs, where she could hear he parents moving around.

She found them both in the living room, both engrossed in their own task.  Lena had forgotten about this.  Her parents never actually doing anything together, but always being in the same place to give the illusion of a happy couple.

“Mother, Father.”  Lena greeted to get their attention.  Both quickly looked up, her father with a smile and her mother with an arched brow.  “My friends wanted me to come to the game early today.  Something about a pre-game gathering.  I just wanted to make sure that was alright.”

“Are you sure you should be wasting your time with something like that?”  Lillian immediately questioned.

“Dear, she’s in high school.”  Lionel sighed.  “Let her be a teenager for once.”

“I’ve finished all my homework.”  Lena assured Lillian, hands clasped behind her back.  “I’ve read ahead in most all of my classes, and I have no projects or tests coming up.  I wouldn’t ask unless I knew my academics were taken care of.”

“See dear, she’s being responsible.”  Lionel motioned to his daughter.  “Let her have fun with her friends.”

“I suppose if you have nothing better to do with your time.”  Lillian relented before turning back to the laptop perched on the couch arm next to her.

“Thank you.”  Lena nodded towards her mother.  “And I promise I’ll be home right after the game.”

Her mother made some sort of dismissive noise, but her father smiled and nodded to his daughter.  Lena returned the smile and quickly retreated from the room.  She was amazed that everything was working out so far.

Quickly grabbing the keys from the hook by the door to the garage, Lena left before anyone could change their mind.  She was also lucky this town was so small, because she was definitely not paying attention to the route on the way to or from school today.

In no time she had pulled into the parking lot and was headed into the building.  “Please be open.  Please be open.”  Lena muttered as she grabbed the door handle.  To her surprise, the door swung open easily.  She was getting a bit concerned at how easy this all was.

Figuring there was no going back now, Lena made her way to the library.  The sweet older woman behind the desk greeted her and quickly went back to work, and Lena found a computer in the farthest corner possible.  Pulling up the Internet, she debated what she wanted to search for first.

Delaying the inevitable, she typed “Superman” into Google and scanned the results.  No results about the hero.  Absolutely nothing.  Did that mean Kara’s cousin never came to Earth?  Lena didn’t know his alter-ego’s name, so searching for that was out.

Next she tried “Alex Danvers” noting she hadn’t seen Kara’s older sister anywhere in the school.  Hundreds of unrelated results popped up, and Lena quickly added “Midvale” to the end of the search to try to narrow it down.  Again, there was nothing.

Eyebrows furrowed, she tried searching for the Danvers family in Midvale.  The top result was an article from two years ago.  Clicking on it, Lena let out a gasp.  Apparently, there was a horrible car accident, Kara’s father was killed instantly, but the child in the car miraculously survived. 

Lena knew her family had only come to town this school year, so that meant the girl still had her powers then.  The only reason Kara was alive was because Lena’s family hadn’t hunted her down yet.  There was a picture of the car, and Lena knew that no human could have ever survived that impact.  The car was little more than scrap metal in the picture.  She wondered if this was what caused the Luthors to be suspicious of the unassuming girl.

Lena leaned back in the seat and ran a hand over her face.  Kara had no cousin, no sister, and no father.  And because of Lena’s family, now the entire school hated her fiercely.  And apparently before Lena became aware in this body, her teen self hated the poor girl just as much as everyone else.

With all this information, Lena was more convinced this had to be a nightmare.  There were too many discrepancies between this and the real world.  This world seemed to be designed specifically to torture Kara, and Lena had to believe that there was no alternative Earth that would do that to someone like Kara.

Lena had no idea how to escape, though.  What little she knew of dreams lead her to believe that she’d wake up eventually, but this nightmare had been going on for so long already.  She quickly searched for how to wake up from a night terror, hoping any information may help her at this point.  Most every result indicated that she would either wake up, or someone else needed to gently rouse her.  Neither of those were very helpful.

Maybe Kara would find her in the real world?  It seemed less and less likely considering how long it had been.  But if this was a dream, maybe her perception of time was distorted?  Lena didn’t exactly enjoy the concept that she couldn’t do anything for the time being.  She didn’t like sitting around waiting for someone to come and save her.

Glancing down at the time, Lena groaned.  If she didn’t head out, she’d miss the start of the stupid game, and her friends would probably never shut up about it.  She quickly cleared the browser history and shut off the computer.

She left the building and made her way towards the stadium right next to the school.  Calling it a “stadium” may have been a touch generous, but Lena couldn’t really care much at this point.  Without much thought, she found herself seated in the bleachers, surrounded by her classmates.  She caught sight of Rebecca waving wildly at her, and she raised a hand in return.  She would have laughed at the other girl’s antics if she wasn’t still reeling from all that she had learned about this world.

The game was exciting as Lena had expected.  She was never a big fan of football, so a small town’s high school team wasn’t the most thrilling event for Lena.  She tried to follow along with her classmate’s cheers and chants, but all she could think about was how fucked up everything was.

Predictably, Lena didn’t see Kara anywhere in the crowd.  She was suddenly overcome with the urge to find the girl, to tell her about the  _ real _ story of Supergirl.  About how loved she was, about how she saved them all over and over again.  About how she made a Luthor feel welcome.  About how she helped Lena to escape her family’s legacy.

But most of all, Lena wished she’d just wake up.  She wasn’t sure how much longer she would be able to handle this world without doing something drastic. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lena, that's gay pt. 2


	4. Chapter 4

The remainder of the week passed in an agonizingly slow crawl for Lena.  Each day was more of the same; she’d go to classes she could ace in her sleep, go home and endure “family time”, do her homework in no time at all, sleep, and repeat.  And the whole time she had to watch the student body continue to torment Kara without being able to help. Luckily there were no more physical altercations after that first day, but the verbal torment continued on strong as ever.

  
Sure, she considered stepping in the day after the football game, but she had a sneaking suspicion that it would only make things far worse.  Not even considering Lex’s extreme reaction, she would bet her company that the student body would find a way to blame Kara. Whether it would be blackmail, threats, or even some strange alien power they would fabricate for the poor girl, Lena knew Kara would be solely to blame.

  
So Lena bit her tongue and tried to figure out some way to escape this dream instead.  Sure, it would probably always haunt her, but at least if she woke up she’d be able to see the real Kara again.  The Kara that could light up a whole room with a single smile. The Kara that everyone loved.

  
Eventually, thankfully, Friday afternoon rolled around and Lena couldn’t be happier to have a few days away from the high school.  As soon as she was home, she made her way to her room and fell face-first onto her bed. Keeping her head down this week was making her feel physically ill, and she wanted nothing more than to just shut her over-active brain down for a few hours.

  
“Lee,” she lifted her head to see Lex standing in her doorframe, looking a bit concerned, “you okay?”

  
“I-” Lena considered lying, saying everything was fine.  But she was tired. So very tired. And this was her big brother.  Even if she knew what he was capable of, she remembered growing up with him.  Remembered how he always tried to keep her safe, to make the bad times better.  But she couldn’t be honest. Not completely, anyway. She didn’t feel like being locked up in a psych ward in this nightmare-world.

  
“Honestly, I just don’t feel very well.”  Lena finally settled for.

  
“You have seemed kind of off this week.”  Lex nodded with a sympathetic look on his face, coming to sit next to her on the bed.  Lena flipped over and sat up so she was shoulder to shoulder with him.  
Lena tried to figure out how to explain without giving too much away.  “I think being here, dealing with mother, dealing with this school, it’s all just catching up with me.”  
“I know we have a bad situation at school-”

  
“It’s not Kara.”  Lena couldn’t help but snap out, and Lex’s eyebrows shot up.  “I mean, it is stressful having her there.” _But not for the reason you think_.  Lena thought sadly.  “I'm just… I’m ready for high school to be over.  To be away from all of this.”

  
“I understand.”  Lex offered a sympathetic smile and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.  “It’s too bad this school wouldn’t let you test out of a year. You could have probably passed all their graduation tests last year.”

  
“I absolutely could have.”  Lena insisted and leaned into Lex.  “Thank you.”

  
She tried to savor this moment, but Lena just couldn’t separate this Lex from the one she knew.  A heavy sigh escaped her. She thought she could just focus on the kid he used to be, but when he immediately assumed Kara was the problem, the reality came crashing back down onto her.

  
Once Lena assured Lex that she was going to be okay, he left her room, offering one last smile as he walked out.  Not knowing what else to do, Lena booted up Netflix and grabbed her notebook to keep working on a few projects she had in progress back home.  Having all the original data would have been helpful, but she was finding that working from scratch had helped her move past a few snags she had run into before.

  
Soon enough Lena was being called down for dinner, and she tucked the notebook back into her backpack.  She quickly made her way down the stairs and went to set the table under her mother’s watchful eye.

“So,” her father began after everyone was settled and food was distributed, “how was school?”

“Fine.”  Lex stated, not bothering to elaborate.  Lionel’s brow raised at his son, and Lex let out a sigh.  “Nothing exciting. Still far too easy.”

“I know that the curriculum is lacking.”  Lillian stated, “But what can you expect from a town like this?”

“Dear, the children have been very understanding with the move.”  Lionel seemed to be trying to cut off the conversation before Lillian could get going.  Lena had a feeling this wasn’t the first time she had voiced her distaste at Midvale. 

“Yes, I suppose they have been.”  She finally conceded. “How was your day, dear?”

Lionel let out a groan at the question.  “This whole week has been a hassle.”

“Oh?”

“Yes.”  Lionel took a drink of his wine.  “We found out one of our scientist was an alien sympathizer.”

Lena’s head shot up, dread beginning to settle in her stomach.

“Obviously we had to remove him from the company.”  Lionel sneered. “It was just a matter of finding an official explanation.”

“That should have been plenty of reason.”  Lex spoke up.

“True, true.”  Lionel nodded to his son.  “But there are those ridiculous alien-rights groups we’re dealing with now.  Arguing as if aliens should have the same rights as humans.”

Lena felt nausea growing with every word leaving her family’s lips.

“They should stay on their own planet.”  Lillian stated as if it were obvious. “Then they’d have all the rights they could want.  Far, far away from Earth.”

“What if they couldn’t”  Lena blurted before she could stop herself.  “Maybe they have a good reason that they’re here.”

Her entire family was now staring at her as if she had grown an extra head.

“Just trying to play devil’s advocate, here.”  She finally offered, a painfully forced smile on her face.

“Hmm.”  Lionel finally looked away in thought.  “That’s something we’ll have to figure out how to argue against, I suppose.”

Both Lex and Lillian looked deep in thought at the new puzzle offered to them.  “If these other species are irresponsible enough to destroy their own planets, then they should have to live with the consequences.”  Lex reasoned.

“Yes, we could probable spin that.”  Lionel nodded, giving Lex a proud smile.  “Thank you Lena. The last thing I needed was to be blindsided by a question like that.”

“Of course.”  Lena ground out, looking back down at her plate.

How could they honestly think like that, she wondered.  How could anyone look at someone in need and turn them away that easily?  Dismiss an entire species’ problems just because they were different? And the most sickening thought of all, how could she have agreed with them, once upon a time.  Sure, she may have never had views as extreme as theirs, but she definitely grew up more than wary of all aliens.

She managed to push her food around enough to make it look like she had eaten, but her stomach was in far too many knots to force anything down.  Lillian let her escape up to her room with only a mildly disapproving look, and as soon as she crossed the threshold, she shut the door firmly behind her.

Lena tried to fall asleep, she really did.  After the week she had, she was definitely exhausted.  But the conversation from dinner was running through her mind on repeat.  After tossing and turning for a while, Lena sat up with a growl. Looking over at her alarm clock, she saw it was nearly 1 in the morning.

Not knowing what else to do, Lena got up and pulled on a sweatshirt and a pair of sneakers.  Going for a walk in the middle of the night in an unfamiliar town was probably a terrible idea, but what was the worst that could happen?  It wasn’t like any of this was real.

She walked over to her window and managed to slowly open it without making a single noise.  Slipping out the window was easy considering her room overlooked a sloping roof. Once on the edge, it was easy enough to drop down the short distance to the soft grass underneath.  After waiting a moment to make sure no noise was coming from the house, she began walking a random direction.

Lena had never actually lived in a small rural town before, and she was discovering a special kind of calm under the cover of night.  Insects were calling out all around her, providing a calming soundtrack as she wandered, guided by the light from the moon. She realized that there was very little artificial light as she made her way through a neighborhood.

Eventually, she could see a small park in the distance, and she made her way towards it.  Once she got close enough, she could see a figure laying on top of the plastic slide. She was about to turn around and head back home when she realized she recognized the lone figure.

“Come here often?”  Lena called out as a joke, immediately feeling bad as she watched Kara shoot up and fall off the slide.  “Are you okay?” She jogged the last of the distance between them.

“Oh, um, yeah.”  Kara managed to stand up after a moment.  Her hands shot up to fiddle with her glasses before she realized that she wasn’t wearing them.  “Sorry, I can go.”

“No!”  Lena went to grab her wrist, but managed to stop herself just in time.  “No, sorry. You were here first, you can stay.”

“Oh, okay.”  Kara shuffled her feet for a moment before gingerly sitting back down on the slide.

Lena figured she should probably leave.  She was clearly making the other girl uncomfortable.  Kara wouldn’t even look at her.

“Are you okay?”  Lena couldn’t stop herself from asking.

“What?”  At Lena’s question, Kara finally looked up and met Lena’s eyes.

“I scared you.”  Lena explained. “And you kind of fell off the slide.”

“Oh, yeah, that.”  Kara started wringing her hands.  “It’s okay, it didn’t even hurt. You just surprised me is all.”

“Yes, well, I can’t imagine you get many other people out this late.”  Lena let out a little awkward chuckle.

“No, it’s usually just me.”  Kara agreed, offering a small smile.

Feeling awkward, Lena shifted her weight from foot to foot.  “Can I ask why you are out here?”

“Um…”

“Sorry, no, I’ll go.”  Lena went to leave before hearing Kara speak up.

“No, it’s just,”  Kara grimaced a bit, “you’ve spoken to me more this week than you have in the year you’ve been at the school.  It’s weird.”

“Yes, I suppose that would be.”  Lena agreed, sighing heavily, sitting down next to the slide, making sure to leave a bit of room between the two of them.  

She considered how much to tell Kara for a moment.  Lena didn’t particularly want the other girl to think she was crazy, so she chose her words carefully.  “Would you believe I’ve had a change of heart recently?”

“That would be one big change.”  Kara scoffed, then seemed to realize what she had done and shrunk in on herself, expecting the worst.

“Would it be?  Just because I’m a Luthor, I have to be just like my parents?”  Lena asked, truly curious how this Kara thought of her.

“Well, you did personally put this bracelet on me a month after your family came to town.”

“I did what?!”  Lena couldn’t help but exclaim, looking up at Kara in shock.

Kara immediately flinched at the outburst, but still managed to answer.  “Yes. And you seemed rather proud of the fact.”

“I’m… I’m so sorry.”  Lena looked down to her lap in shame.  The thought of hurting her friend like that, it was almost too much to bear.

“Why?”

“I’m the reason that our classmates can hurt you.”  Lena glanced back up to see Kara giving her an odd look.

“They could hurt me even if I was indestructible.”  Kara murmured, breaking eye contact. “Every day they’re sure to reminded that I’m a freak.”

“Being different doesn’t make you a freak.  And I’m so sorry that our classmates can’t see that you’re a good person.”

“And  how do you know that I’m a good person?”  Kara questioned.

“Because, even with that bracelet on, I think we both know you could do something drastic.  But you don’t. You try to keep your head down and get though your days without any incident.  Because even though you’ve seen the worst of humanity, I think you still believe that there are good people in this world that deserve to be protected.  And I think, if you weren’t wearing that stupid bracelet, you would be the one protecting them.” Lena told Kara with the utmost sincerity.

The end of her speech may have been a little too true to the real Kara instead of this one, but Lena found that she couldn’t stop once she started.

“You have quite a bit of faith in an alien.”  Kara muttered, and Lena could see the beginnings of a blush on her cheeks.  “Especially for a Luthor.”

“I’m not my family.”  Lena insisted.

“No, I guess you’re not.”  Kara smiled down at Lena, and she could feel a blush beginning on her own face.

“So now that we’ve had a deep, emotional discussion at nearly 2 in the morning,” Lena tried to lighten the mood, “can I ask why you’re in a playground in the middle of the night?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”  Kara shot back with a tiny smirk.

“I believe I asked first.”  Lean challenged.

“I guess you did.”  Kara relented, and looked up.  “I like watching the stars.”

“Oh?”

“The constellations are different than the ones back home, but it’s close.”  Kara’s smile was bittersweet.

“Do you know their names?”  Kara looked back down to Lena the question with a curious look.  “I may be leagues ahead of the rest of this town in math and physics, but I’m hopeless in astronomy.”  Lena shrugged.

“Really?”

“Yep.”  Lena confirmed.  “There’s no reason for a Luthor to show an interest in the stars.”

“Oh.”  Kara looked surprised by Lena’s honesty.  “I guess not.”

“So…?”

“Oh, right!  Yes!” Kara shook herself slightly and looked up and studied the sky before pointing up at a cluster of stars.  “Well, that’s the Big Dipper, which most people have at least heard of, so I guess it’s a good starting point.”

Lena scooted closer until her shoulder was touching the slide so she could see the stars Kara was pointing towards.  And after a bit of prompting, Kara began walking Lena though all the constellations, lighting up as she spoke.

Eventually Lena started just watching Kara talk, feeling a gentle smile tug at her lips as they blonde grew more and more comfortable around her.  At one point Kara glanced down, and gave Lena another curious glance.

“Sorry, I’m listening, I promise.”  Lena urged.

Kara grinned and went right back to her lesson, and Lena felt the anxiety and dread that had been gripping her for the past week dissolve.  Eventually Kara finished her impromptu lesson, and she looked back down at Lena with an odd expression.

“What?”  Lena asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

“Oh, nothing.”  Kara was quick to assure her.  “It’s just… If someone had told me I’d be teaching Lena Luthor astronomy in the middle of the night, I would have thought they were crazy.  Especially if they told me that she’d be wearing pajama pants with little cartoon cats printed all over them.” Kara gently teased, and Lena felt herself heat up with a blush, looking down at the grinning cat faces on her pants.

“Well,” Lena cleared her throat when her voice came out a bit too high, “I guess life is full of surprises.”

“Yeah.”  Lena looked back up to see Kara grinning down at her.  “I guess it is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it's been a while, this is the first week in a month I haven't been traveling... So I come bearing some fluff to hopefully make up for the wait.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been forever, but I've moved twice in two months and haven't really been able to muster up the motivation to keep going... But I'm back now, and I hope to be able to get the rest the the story out without too much delay!

Lena shouldn’t have been surprised that her and Kara’s nighttime meeting changed nothing between them at school.  But somehow when the other girl wouldn't so much as meet her eyes at school on Monday, Lena still felt a little jolt of hurt go through her.

Logically, Lena knew the other students would notice, would think something had happened.  But Lena’s heart didn’t want to listen to her brain, and having Kara back as a friend, even if only for an hour or so, made her miss her world all that much more.  She had even dreamed of Kara’s voice calling out, asking her to come back Sunday night, which was a little pathetic in Lena’s mind.

The monotony of this nightmare world almost drove Lena insane the first three days of the week.  She had to forcibly keep her mouth shut more than once at dinner, and had taken to avoiding Kara in the halls just so she didn’t have to see the other students sneer at her.

By Thursday she was ready to pull her own hair out in frustration.  So when the lunch conversation turned to Kara, she simply stood up and walked away, not caring what her so-called “friends” thought.

Not knowing where else to go, Lena made her way to the bathroom in the farthest corner of school, knowing it was rarely used.  She gripped the sink with both hands hard enough her already pale skin turned ghostly white. A scream was fighting to escape her throat when she heard the sound of a lock sliding behind her.  Whipping around to fix a glare at whatever poor girl had decided to use this bathroom, Lena was instead met with the sight of Kara swaying gently in the doorway of the stall.

“Kara?”  Lena prompted when the other girl hadn’t moved.

“Hmm?”  Kara’s head lazily tilted up to meet Lena’s concerned gaze, and Lena saw half-lidded eyes barely focus on her.  “Oh… no one’s ever in here.” Kara murmured.

“That’s why I was.”  Lena tried to joke as she took a tentative step forward.  “Seemed like a good place to be alone.”

“My fault.”  Kara nodded, then suddenly pitched forward.  Lena, who had thankfully moved towards the girl, just managed to catch her, but started teetering backwards at the surprising weight of Kara’s slight form.

“Kara!”  Lena just managed to catch herself and looked down to see Kara’s face screwed up in pain.  “What’s going on?”

“Bracelet…”  She muttered into Lena’s shoulder.  “Hurts.”

“It hurts you?”  Lena sputtered. “How do I take it off?”

Kara’s head suddenly started shaking back and forth.  “Can’t.”

“There’s got to be some sort of release, Kara.”  Lena insisted.

“Can’t…” She insisted.  “Would know… it was you.”

“What?”

Kara’s next words were quiet, and mostly muffled against the material of her shirt, but Lena did make out “Luthor” and “open”, leading Lena to believe only a Luthor could open the stupid contraption.  And Kara, sweet, self-sacrificing Kara didn’t want anyone to think that Lena was the one who removed it.

“Screw that.”  Lena muttered and maneuvered them both to the ground.  Kara seemed mostly unconscious, only making small whimpers every now and then, so it took Lena a bit to get both of them into a comfortable position.

Once situated, Lena lifted Kara’s wrist to her face to study the bracelet.  It was put on the girl’s wrist so tightly Lena couldn’t even spin it around.  How she still has circulation to her hand, Lena didn’t know. But after a brief examination, Lena noticed a small panel on the underside the device.  Digging a nail into the small groove, Lena managed to pop a small latch open, revealing a biometric scanner.

“Only a Luthor, huh?”  Lena smirked and placed a thumb on the scanner.  After a tense moment of nothing, there was a quiet hiss, and Lena let out a triumphant noise once the bracelet opened on a hinge.

Lena pulled the device off of Kara’s wrist gently, and after a brief scan of the room, scooted out from under Kara to place it in the farthest corner of the room.  It wasn’t too far, but Lena was hoping some distance would at least let the other girl wake up.

While up, Lena also went and turned the lock on the bathroom door not wanting anyone to accidentally wander in here.  Once that was done, Lena settled back down next to Kara to watch over her until she regained consciousness.

Apparently, the even the small amount of distance Lena put between Kara and the kryptonite made a huge difference, because it only took a minute for her eyes to flutter open and land on Lena.  Once she seemed to be fully aware, Kara let out a little yelp and scooted away from Lena. Or, at least, she tried to scoot, but she managed to launch herself four feet away from Lena, and stayed hovering in the air for a brief moment before crashing back into the tiles.

“Kara…?”

“No, no, no.”  Kara ignored Lena and started looking around the bathroom frantically.  Her eyes landed on the bracelet shoved into the corner and scrambled to grab it.

“Hey, no.”  Lena yelped and shot up to get to it first.

The two managed to grab it at the same time, prompting a stare-down between the two girls.

“You have to let me put it back on.”  Kara insisted.

“Why?”  Lena practically growled in frustration, both at Kara’s insistence and her inability to pull the device from Kara’s strong grip.  “It’s hurting you!”

“It doesn’t matter!”  Kara immediately shot back.

“Yes it does!”

“Why do you care?”

“Because you don’t deserve this!”  Lena snapped. “You don’t deserve any of this!”

Kara stopped moving and just studied Lena at that.  Unfortunately, her iron grip remained on the bracelet, so Lena couldn’t yank it from her grasp, but as she continued to study Lena, she found herself flushing under the intense gaze.

A series of sharp knocks caused both girls to jump and look towards the door.

“Whoever’s in there, you need to unlock this door right now.”  A stern voice called out.

Both girls looked at each other in alarm, down to the bracelet, then back to each other.

“Give me it.”  Kara hissed, but Lena was quickly scanning the room for anything to help them.  Her eyes landed on a window, narrow and flush with the ceiling, but it would have to do.

“Out the window.”  Lena directed.

“What?”  Kara managed to stay quiet with her yelp, but just barely.

“Go, and I’ll toss it out after you.”  Lena explained, already moving. The knocking continued at the door, and now there were calls for a janitor, but Lena did her best to ignore it.

“Why not just give it to me now?”  Kara questioned, but finally let go and stood next to Lena under the window.

“Because you’re going to have to fly out and down to the ground.”  Lena explained, giving Kara a pleading look. “And this won’t let you do that.”  She shook the device.

Blue eyes widened at the plan.  “What if someone sees me?”

“What happens when they unlock that door and find me holding this?”  Lena countered, feeling terrible using herself against Kara, but she needed the girl to leave.  Lena wouldn’t let them blame anything else on Kara.

After a brief moment where Kara seemed to be weighing her options she let out a little growl and launched herself up and through the window.  Lena let out a heavy sigh of relief and counted to 10 before tossing the bracelet through the now-open window. She thanked whatever deity would listen that she managed to throw it successfully the first time.

The sound of the door unlocking behind her caused Lena to spin on her heel just as a teacher she didn’t recognize stormed into the bathroom.

“Miss Luthor.”  She glared down at Lena.  “I hope you have an explanation for this.”

“I-” Lena started, but was immediately cut off.

“Oh no, not to me, to the principal.”  The teacher then grabbed her wrist and began pulling her out of the bathroom.

“Excuse me!”  Lena yelped as she was manhandled.  “I don’t believe that you’re allowed to drag me around the school.”

The teacher turned to glare at Lena once again, but released her wrist.  She began grumbling under her breath too quiet for Lena to hear, but she was pretty sure it was something about “entitled brats”.

Not wanting to cause any more trouble, Lena followed the teacher to the principal’s office, trying to figure out any excuse as to why she was alone in a locked bathroom.  She also hoped that Kara made it out okay. She was pretty sure that bathroom overlooked the back of the school, which should have been deserted at this time of day, but until Lena saw Kara again, she was going to worry.

Soon enough, she was sat down in a chair across a kind looking man with one brow raised in question.

“Ms. Cross, is there a reason Lena Luthor is sitting in my office?”  He glanced up at the teacher.

“She didn’t show up for English, and I found her locked in the east bathroom.  Not only was she skipping, she wouldn’t open the door when asked multiple times.”  Ms. Cross explained, glare still aimed Lena’s way.

“Miss Luthor, do you have anything to say?”  The principal looked down to her.

“I’m sorry to cause a problem.”  Lena tried to keep her voice low and meek.  Maybe she could earn some pity from the man.  “I just didn’t feel very well.”

“Why not go to the nurse?”  He questioned.

“Um… not unwell physically, but, well…” she motioned to her head, hoping it would be enough.

“Oh?”  His brows raised before his face softened.  “I know this can be a difficult time for you children.  But even if you feel unwell mentally, you need to go to the nurse.”

“I’m sorry.”  Lena dropped her gaze, amazed this was working.

“Ms. Cross, will you take her there now?”

“That’s it?”  Came the surprised squawk from behind Lena.

“Ms. Cross.”  The principal’s gaze became hard and stern.

“Yes sir.”  She ground out and led Lena out the door and towards the nurse.  She left Lena there without a word, and Lena breathed a sigh of relief.

“Miss Luthor?”  The nurse’s face peaked out from behind a curtain, and Lena almost screamed in shock.  Standing there, giving her a concerned look, was Alex Danvers. Or Alex… Sawyer? Lena had to blink a few times to make sure she was reading the nametag correctly.

Another call of her name shook Lena from her confusion and she looked up to meet Alex’s eyes.

“Um… I was supposed to come and talk to you.”  Lena finally spoke up.

“About what exactly?”  Alex prompted, motioning to the small cot behind a curtain.  Of course, when Lena saw Kara situated on the other cot she practically fell flat on her face.

Alex noticed her hesitation and sighed heavily.  “None of that please, please leave the blood feud at the curtain.”  Lena assumed it was supposed to be a joke, but both of them flinched at the comment.

Lena managed to collect herself well enough to sit on the cot, back uncomfortably straight and not looking at Kara.  She didn’t know why, but she thought if she made eye contact Alex would figure them both out. Lena did sneak a quick glance at Kara, and was surprised to see an ice pack bound to her ankle.

“So,” Alex pulled Lena’s attention back, “what were you supposed to talk to me about?”

“Oh, um… I kind of locked myself in a bathroom today?”  Lena sheepishly admitted.

“Okay.”  Alex sat down in front of Lena and put a hand to her forehead.  “Can I ask why?”

“I think I was having a panic attack.”  Lena muttered quietly. Even if it was untrue at the moment, she remembered the attacks that wracked her when Lex went off the deep end.  Being left without a family, expected to run a company all on her own, carrying one of the most hated names, it was a lot to deal with all at once.

“And that’s why you locked the bathroom door?”  Alex’s voice was gentle as she pushed.

“Yes.”  Lena agreed.  “I was leaving the lunch room and it started to get hard to breath, and I just didn’t feel right in my mind, so I went and locked myself in a room to get through it.”

“Do you take anything to help?”

“No.”  Lena shook her head sharply.  “My parents don’t know about them, and I’d like to keep it that way.”  No weakness could be shown in the Luthor family. “I have some breathing exercises that help.”

“There’s nothing wrong with taking something if it helps, Lena.”  Alex assured her.

“I don’t get them very often.”  Lena told Alex. Actually, if Lena thought about it, she hadn’t had one since her mother was put away.

Alex let out a long sigh, then shook her head slightly.  “I’ll make you a deal. I won’t have a talk with your parents, mostly because I’m sure they’d never listen to someone like me, but if you feel even the slightest bit off again, you come straight here.  And if it starts happening frequently, then we’ll have to talk about getting you to see a specialist, okay?”

“I think that sounds fair.”  Lena agreed. It wasn’t bad advice to take back with her to the real world as well.

“I also want you to stay here for a little to make sure the attack has passed.”

“That’s fine.”  Lena nodded.

“Okay, I have to go and take some inventory.”  She turned to look at Kara. “Will you two be okay if I leave you alone for a few minutes?”

Kara gave a small nod and shifted a bit to lay down more comfortably.

“Good.  I’ll be in the next room, so call if you need anything.”

With that, Alex stepped out of the tiny infirmary, and it was suddenly just Kara and Lena.

“Are you okay?”  Lena whispered.

“I may have kind of rolled my ankle running back to my next class.”  Kara blushed and looked down at the ice pack.

Lena leaned forward to peak around the curtain and didn’t see Alex anywhere, so she turned back to Kara.  “It works that fast?” She motioned to the bracelet.

“Yeah…” Kara affirmed.  “It was never very far, so it was always affecting me a bit.  Flying out of the window was kind of difficult.”

“Sorry.”  Lena immediately apologized.

“It’s not…” Kara stopped suddenly.  “Okay, it may be kind of your fault?  I’m a bit confused on that subject lately.  But you made sure I didn’t get in any trouble, so thank you for that.”

“Glad I could help.”  Lena smiled at the other girl, and was elated when she returned the smile.

Both girls turned when they heard footsteps approaching.

“Will you meet me at the playground tonight?”  Kara suddenly asked in a whisper. “I think we need to talk.”

Lena nodded, and Kara seemed to relax before laying herself back down in the cot.  Not a moment later the curtain was pulled back and Lena turned to see if Alex would let her leave now.  Except the very angry face revealed was definitely not Alex, but instead Lex.

“Lena, get up.   _ Now _ .”  He ground out between clenched teeth.

“Lex?”  Lena stood quickly, not quite sure what he was doing here.

“Excuse me?”  Alex suddenly appeared behind Lex, and he barely spared her a glance, focusing fully on Lena instead.  “Is there a reason you’re here young man?”

At that he whipped around and thrust a finger into Alex’s face.  “How dare you put my sister in a room with that  _ thing _ .”

“They were both my patients, where did you expect me to put your sister?”  Alex raised an eyebrow at the fuming teenager before her. “And I’d ask that you use Kara’s name when talking about her.”

“You can expect a call to the principal from my father.”  Lex sneered at Alex, fully ignoring her question.

“For what?”  Alex let out a humorless laugh.  “Doing my job?”

Lex looked ready to explode at Alex’s attitude, so Lena stepped in, not wanting anything to happen to the only other person that seemed to be on Kara’s side.

“Lex, it’s fine.”  Lena tried to speak slowly and calmly, as if dealing with a wild animal.  “I was in there for maybe a minute, and Kara was asleep the whole time. So let’s just go, okay?”

For a tense moment, Lena thought he’d try to keep fighting, but thankfully he put a surprisingly gentle hand on Lena’s back and led them both out of the office.

The crisis seemed to be averted for the moment, but Lena had a sinking suspicion that this was most definitely not the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone's enjoying! I think we're gonna have like one or two more chapters, then maybe an epilogue? Kind of depends on how the next chapter goes.


	7. Chapter 7

Between locking herself in the bathroom, and spending time sitting in the nurse’s office, Lena had apparently missed two of her last four classes.  But to her surprise, Lex began leading her out of the building instead of letting her go to her next class. 

The walk out to Lex’s car was filled with tense silence, and Lena could see his that his hands were tightly clenched the whole way.  She was dreading the conversation that would follow as soon as the two made it to the car. But Lena was not a coward, so she held her head high and followed her brother’s quick pace out of the building and into the parking lot.

“What happened?”  Lex questioned the second both car doors were closed.  His voice was too calm, and Lena was pretty sure that he was one wrong answer from snapping.  He wouldn’t even look at her.

“I…” Lena wasn’t sure how to play this.  Try to gain Lex’s sympathy? Or brush off the whole thing like it wasn’t a big deal?

Lex didn’t let her stay quiet for long before speaking again.  “You missed two classes and I found you in the nurse’s office. Why?”

“Lex-”

“Why?”  Lena’s earlier hunch was confirmed as his head snapped around and he practically snarled at her.

Lena couldn’t help it, she physically flinched away from him and ended up smacking her shoulder into the car door, wincing at the pain that shot down her arm.  However, her reaction and subsequent pain seemed to have no effect on Lex. His too-intense glare stayed fixed on her, and Lena felt her throat constrict. This was the Lex she remembered in his final days, and Lena wasn’t sure she could stand seeing him like this again.

Knowing there was no getting out of this situation, Lena just shakily repeated her explanation from earlier.  “I had a panic attack and needed to be alone. A teacher found me locked in a bathroom and the principal made me go to the nurse.”

“A panic attack?”  He raised a brow at her, and Lena couldn’t see any sympathy in his expression.  So that plan clearly didn’t work.

“Yes.”

“And you told them?”  Lex snapped, surprising Lena.  “The reason our family can get away with so much is because we’re untouchable.  You put that at risk today.”

“Excuse me?”  Lena was shocked enough that she didn’t even think before speaking.  “I’m sorry for being human. It’s not like I can help it!”

“You should have kept it under control until school was over.”

“I can’t!”  Lena shouted, and a flicker of surprise broke Lex’s cold demeanor.  “It’s not something I just turn on and off when it’s convenient for the fucking ‘Luthor image’!”  She sneered as she put air quotes around the phrase.

“What is wrong with you lately?”  Lex huffed, roughly running a hand through his hair.  “It’s like you’re trying to cause problems for us.”

Lena had been through quite a bit since landing in this infuriating nightmare.  She had to deal with her judgemental, bigoted family again. She had to play the perfect child for them, against her better judgement.  She had to deal with a student-body of morons. And worst of all, she had to witness Kara being harassed and tormented at every turn. So who could blame her if she finally snapped?

“Maybe I’m just sick of being a ‘perfect Luthor’.”  Lena shot at him.

“What does that even mean?”

“It means I’m done with this.”  Lena snapped, wrenching the door open and stepping out of the car.  “I’m done being a part of this stupid fucking world. I’m a better person than this fucking place seems to want me to be.”

“Lena, you aren’t making any sense!”  Lex had also gotten out of the car, the anger still clear on his face.  “Get in the fucking car, we’re going home and you can answer to Father for your behavior.”

“No.”  Lena laughed, not caring that she sounded a bit manic herself at this point.  “I stopped being one of ‘The Luthors’ the day you and Mother decided to be homicidal maniacs.”

“Excuse me?”

She ignored him, choosing instead to yell directly at the sky, determined that this cursed world heard her.  “I’m not like them, and not even this world can force me to be! I renounced them and their views. I rebuilt my company from the ground up with the single goal of helping  _ all _ people, regardless of their heritage.  I endured the scorn of National City, determined to make the people see that I wasn’t just my last name.  I may not be a hero like Kara, but I certainly am  _ not _ a villain.  And I refuse to ever be one.”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”  Lex hissed, and for the briefest moment, Lena misunderstood his words.  Against her better judgement, she thought that maybe she had figured out how to end this nightmare, that maybe refusing to play this game was the answer.  But when she met Lex’s eyes, she realized that he wasn’t even looking at her. Instead, his eyes were filled with fear, and concentrated over Lena’s shoulder.

Turning on her heel, Lena gasped as she was met with the student body, who had apparently been dismissed for the day.  If she had been in a better mindset, Lena may have been confused, considering there was no way the siblings had been in the car for that long.  But all Lena could focus on was each and every student focused on her, no doubt shocked into silence by Lena’s shouting match with the sky.

Glancing back and forth between the assembled student body and Lex’s sheer panic, Lena did the only thing that felt natural.  She dropped her bag, kicked off her heels, and sprinted into the woods that backed up to campus.

 

**XXXXX**

 

After running for who knows how long, Lena collapsed with her back to a tree and finally just let herself cry.  Rough, painful sobs tore out of her chest, and she could do nothing but curl into as tight of a ball as possible and let them run their course.

She was so sure for the briefest moment that she was done with this nightmare.  That she would finally be going home.

“I can’t do this anymore.”  Lena sobbed out, ashamed that it only took a little over a week for her to break, but not able to stop the truth from tearing out of her.  “Please, just let me go.”

For a fleeting moment, Lena thought she felt a gentle touch to her cheek, wiping the tears away, but when she uncurled and looked around, no one was there.  She let her face press into her knees again and just continued to cry.

Lena wasn’t sure how much time passed with her curled up like she was, but a sudden snap of a twig caused her head to snap up, searching for the source.  Suddenly, Lena realized she didn’t even know what kind of animals lived in these woods. But when a familiar blonde appeared a moment later, the tension left her and she just let her head fall again.

“Why are you here?”  Lena sighed.

“You never showed up at the playground, and after this afternoon, I got worried.”  Kara explained.

“What?”  Lena’s head shot up and she looked to the sky.  Sure enough, it was dark, especially under the canopy of the trees.  “That can’t be right…”

Sure, she wasn’t keeping track of time out here, but there was no way she was out crying in the woods for that long, right?

“I promise I didn’t follow you or anything.”  Kara rushed to explain. “You’re actually not that far from my house…”

“I’m sorry Kara.”  Lena lowered her head to look at the girl, grimacing at the rough sound of her voice, and tried to clear her throat.  “I really didn’t know I was out here for so long.”

“After this afternoon, I can’t blame you for hiding.”  Kara shrugged. “It’s been kind of a crazy day, huh?”

Lena just nodded, barely believing it was only this afternoon she helped Kara in the bathroom.

“Um…” Lena watched as Kara began to wring her hands together, looking anywhere but Lena curled up on the floor of the woods.  “Do you… I mean, do you want to, maybe, come back to my house with me?”

“What?”

“Sorry,” Kara shook her head and managed to look at Lena this time, “but it just seems like you need somewhere to stay other than your house.  For tonight at least. And you helped me this afternoon, so I thought maybe I could help you? If you wanted?”

“That would be nice.”  Lena managed a small smile.  “I’m not sure I’d survive going home.”  The joke fell flat as both realized there was a sliver of truth to her words.

Kara offered a hand down to Lena, surprising her, but she still managed to grab the offered help.  Standing up, Lena could almost believe she spent all afternoon and most of the evening curled up on the floor.  Her limbs ached with disuse, and she heard several joints pop as she straightened up.

“This way.”  Kara tilted her head, but didn’t let go of Lena’s hand as they made their way out of the trees.  Lena couldn’t help the flush that colored her cheeks, even with the state she was in. It turned out Kara wasn’t exaggerating, and the two were approaching a home not two minutes into walking.

“Oh god, you could hear me sobbing from your house, couldn’t you?”  Lena groaned, embarrassed that someone could have been witness to her breakdown.

“Um… yeah.”  Kara glanced back, eyes full of concern.  “I figured you wanted to be alone, but it was getting dark and I couldn’t leave you out there alone anymore.”

“Sorry.”  Lena grimaced, not comfortable being any more of a burden to Kara.

“Don’t be.”  Kara brushed off the apology, approaching the front door.  “It sounded like you needed to get it all out.”

“Yeah…”

Kara had to let go of Lena’s hand to unlock the front door, and Lena immediately missed the feeling of warmth Kara provided.  Of course, when Kara grabbed her hand the second the door was open, Lena couldn’t help but smile down at the contact.

“My mom’s out of town for work, so don’t worry about keeping quiet.”  Kara let Lena know as she led her upstairs and towards a bedroom. Once inside, Kara ushered her towards the bed, then let go to gather up a blanket and draped it over Lena’s shoulders.

“Um…?”

Before Lena could question anything, Kara began talking again.

“Can I get you some water?  Or hot chocolate? Tea? Something warm?  You’re kind of really cold.” Kara rambled.

“Am I?”  Lena asked, trying to take stock of her own body.  After a moment of focus, she did realize that she could barely feel her fingers and toes.  “Hot chocolate would be amazing.” Lena sheepishly admitted. “But I don’t want you to have to-”

Before she could even finish the sentence, Kara had already disappeared out the door.  Lena let out a little sigh, and curled her feet under herself so she could wrap the blanket around her whole body.  A moment later she heard the sound of a microwave beeping, then Kara walking back up the stairs.

“Here.”  Kara held out a mug with a cute little cartoon dog grinning back at her.

“You’re being so nice to me.”  Lena’s voice was small as she took the mug.  “You shouldn’t be so nice to me.”

“I could say the same thing.”  Kara countered, pulling up a chair so she could sit across from Lena.

“My family ruined your life.  For no reason other than you being born on another planet.”  Lena met Kara’s eyes, trying to get her to understand. “We made sure to make you miserable at every turn.  You should  _ hate _ me.”  Tears began to gather in her eyes again.  “Why don’t you hate me?”

“Because you’re not like your family.”  Kara answered simply. “You never seemed interested in interacting with me.”

Lena gave her a questioning look.

“Before this,” Kara kind of motioned generally between the two of them, “you never even spoke to me.  Even when you put this on me.” Kara lifted her wrist, causing Lena’s stomach to clench with guilt. “You just were indifferent to me.  Hell, you wouldn’t even look at me. Your family went out of their way to make sure I knew they hated me, but not you.

“But then you… changed.  And you were nice. And you cared about me, all of the sudden.  I didn’t know why, but I figured that you were, I don’t know, tired maybe?  Tired of being what other people wanted you to be? So how could I hate someone who was clearly in as much pain as I was?”

Lena figured she got all her tears out in the forest, but after Kara’s speech she was proven very wrong.  Fresh tears sprung forth, and not a moment later Kara was pulling the mug from her hands so she wouldn’t drop the contents on the floor.  Once that was done, Kara sat right next to Lena and pulled her into a tight hug.

“It’s okay, just let it out.”  Kara muttered into Lena’s hair, holding on as she cried all of her frustration out into the other girl’s shoulder.

After an embarrassing amount of crying, Lena finally pulled back and wiped at her face, trying to compose herself.  Kara let her arms loosen from around Lena, but kept one hand holding on to Lena’s

“Thank you.”  Lena squeezed Kara’s hand and smiled.

“Of course.”  Kara smiled back, and Lena ducked her head, not able to stop a blush from appearing.  The two were quite close still, Kara’s warmth seeping into the blanket wrapped around Lena.  “I think your hot chocolate is cold now…” Kara offered an apologetic glance at the mug.

“It’s fine,” Lena brushed off, and in a moment of confidence, continued, “you’re very warm, anyway.”

“Oh, right, okay.”  Lena chuckled at the color appearing on Kara’s face.  But to Lena’s surprise, Kara tugged at the blanket and managed to wiggle her way under, practically setting Lena’s side on fire as the two pressed close.

“Uh…” Lena couldn’t do much more than make an indistinguishable noise at the new closeness of the two.

“Can I ask a question?”  Kara spoke up, looking out towards the door on the other side of the room instead of at Lena.

“I think I owe you that, at the very least.”  Lena agreed, glancing at Kara.

“What changed?”

“Really?”  Lena let out a little laugh, prompting Kara to look questioningly at her.  “I figured you were going to ask why I went crazy this afternoon. You know, yelling at the sky and all?”

“I was working my way up to that…” Kara muttered, looking down at the blanket.

“It’s related, so I guess I’ll just answer both at once.”  Lena shrugged, not caring about sounding crazy anymore. She kind of ruined that this afternoon anyway.  “Honestly, I’m pretty sure this whole world is some sort of crazy nightmare I’m trapped in.”

“Excuse me?”  Kara’s eyes jumped up to meet Lena’s.

“I know it sounds crazy, but I’m most definitely not in school anymore. I’m the CEO of my own company.  I was waiting for you, or the you from my actual world, to bring me lunch, then all the sudden I passed out and woke up in the body of my teenage self.  It’s been horrible.”

“That’s…”

“Not possible?”  Lena asked.

“Crazy.”  Kara said instead.  “But possible, I guess.  There’s a lot of weird aliens out there with powers even I don’t understand.”

“You don’t think I’m insane?”

“Well, it would explain your recent personality change.”  Kara shrugged. “And all those things you said this afternoon.”

“Right.”  Lena grimaced as she recalled her outburst earlier.

“Can I ask something else?”

“You don’t have any other questions about the fact this world probably isn’t actually real?”  Lena asked.

“I’m taking some comfort in that, actually.”  Kara sheepishly smiled. “I’d like to believe that all humans aren’t as terrible as this town.”

“They’re not.”  Lena agreed. “Some still are anti-alien, but most of us are more open-minded to most aliens.”

“Most?”

“We’ve had some… incidents.”  Lena tried to answer as delicately as possible.

“Oh…” Kara looked down.

“But what was your question?”  She tried to move the conversation along.

“You said I was a hero?”  Kara asked. “What did you mean?”

“I meant that you’re a hero.”  Lena answered simply. “You protect the people of National City from all sorts of threats.”  Kara looked up in shock, and Lena couldn’t help but continue. “They love you. You’ve done such great things for the city.”

“It sounds too good to be true.”  Kara shook her head, but Lena could see a smile on her face.

“You know what sounds too good to be true?”  Lena nudged Kara. “The fact that you’d trust a Luthor to help you.  But you came to me a few times, and I could hardly believe it. But you never judged me by my last name.”

“No one has to be defined by a title.”  Kara tilted her head, as if her words were obvious.

“You should tell my investors that.”  Lena huffed. “But, honestly, you helped me to really believe that.  And I could never thank you enough for that.”

Kara was looking intently at Lena as she spoke, and Lena found herself unable to break eye contact.  But then Kara began to ever so slowly lean in, and Lena found herself jolted back to reality.

“I can’t.”  Lena offered as an apology, turning away.

“I’m sorry!”  Kara began to jump away, but Lena grabbed onto her arm, not willing to put distance between them.  As selfish as it was, Kara was keeping Lean grounded at the moment.

“No, I’m sorry.”  Lena sighed. “I just… I think I’m in love with the real Kara, and this is really confusing, not to mention that’s the first time I’m even acknowledging my feelings, and everything happening is kind of a lot all at once.”  Lena stopped to take a deep breath, trying not to panic, rubbing at her forehead with her other hand. “And it’s unfair to both of you I think? This whole situation is so, so very confusing.”

“Oh.”  Kara’s frame relaxed and she leaned back into Lena.  “Yeah, that’s very confusing.”

“I just want to go home.”  Lena murmured. “And I don’t know how.”

Instead of answering, Kara just squeezed Lena’s hand, and Lena let her head fall against Kara’s shoulder, feeling sick at the whole situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one got away from me, but we're getting towards the end. I know I said one or two more chapters last time, but I think there's gonna be at least two more after this one?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it's been a little while since this updated. I was working on it, but I was worried about where to break chapters, so I was just going to finish the whole thing to make sure that there weren't any weirdly short chapters in there anywhere. Of course now I have 12,000 words written and I'm not done... So you guys get this chapter and hopefully one more in the next day or two while I motivate myself to get the last bit done.
> 
> Thank you all for sticking with this story! Seriously, the reviews and kudos are the highlight of my day.

With the day Lena had, she wasn’t even surprised that she fell asleep against Kara at some point.  Faintly she remembered the other girl laying her down gently on the bed and making sure she was securely under a heavy layer of blankets.  And as Lena slept, she swore she could hear quiet singing in a foreign language keeping any lingering darkness away for the night.

She woke up the next morning to the smell of burning toast and quiet swearing, which made her chuckle quietly to herself.  It seemed like this Kara was just as hopeless in the kitchen as hers.

That thought chased away her fleeting good mood.  She missed her world so much, and the longer she was stuck here, the less certain she was about making it back.  Shaking that dark thought out of her head, Lena freed herself from the mountain of blankets and made her way downstairs.

“Good morning.”  She called to the blonde who was scowling at the toaster.

Kara spun around at the greeting. “You’re awake!”

 “Grudgingly.”  Lena decided to be honest.  “Would you like some help?”

Kara flushed as Lena motioned to the toaster.  “I swear I’m not normally this bad.  But I may have tried to fix the toaster two days ago and now it’s a bit unpredictable.”

“And may I ask why the toaster needed fixing?”  Lena chuckled as she studied the device.  It seemed like any other toaster, ignoring the fact that she could literally see heat coming from the device in waves.

“It was slow…” Kara grumbled at the device.

Lena couldn’t help it, she let out a snort at the explanation.  Kara, after trying to look offended for a moment, just started laughing along with her.

“So you supercharged a toaster to save time?”  Lena managed to ask through her laughter.  Kara just shrugged in response.  “How about we stick to something a little safer for breakfast, then?”

Kara quickly went to the fridge and began rifling through it, looking for some food to serve.  “What do you normally eat?”

“Honestly?  I tend to just grab some coffee before heading into the office.”  Lena shrugged, leaning back against the counter.

Kara’s head whipped out of the fridge and a look of horror overtook her features, causing momentary panic in Lena.

“You skip the most important meal of the day?”  Kara asked, and Lena immediately felt the panic leave her.  Of course Kara would be affronted by the notion of skipping a meal.

“I tend to not have time to make anything?”  Her answer came out as a question as Kara stared at her.

“Well, we have plenty of time today, so you don’t have an excuse.”  Kara stated with a determined nod before turning back to the fridge.  “We have eggs, plenty of fruit, yogurt.  I think there may even be some bacon somewhere…” Her voice became more muffled as she seemed to drift further and further into the appliance.

“Maybe we should stick to something safe, considering I’m not sure either of us is particularly skilled in the kitchen?”  Lena suggested.  “Fruit and yogurt sounds perfect.”

Kara suddenly pulled out of the fridge, arms full of various types of berries and a tub of yogurt, a smile on her face.

Soon the two were seated at the kitchen table eating their breakfast.  At some point when Lena’s back was turned Kara produced a plate of sticky buns. After Lena politely turned one down, Kara spent a frighteningly short amount of time consuming the entire plate.

“Do you still need to eat a large amount of food with the bracelet on?”  Lena’s curiosity got the better of her before she could stop herself from asking.

“Hmm?”  Kara looked up from her fifth pastry, and tilted her head to the side.  “I eat more than humans, even like this, yeah.”  Kara began picking at another bun and Lena immediately felt bad for bringing down the mood.  “I think I still have my powers, but they’re just blocked?  Or, my body thinks I should have them, so I have to eat enough to power them?  It’s kind of weird, honestly.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”  Lena muttered, cursing herself.

“No, it’s fine.  I just never talk about it, so it’s weird.”  Kara assured her.  “I definitely eat more when I use my powers.  So like this I eat more than a human, but less than I could, if that makes sense?”

“I think so?”  Lena answered.

Once they were done eating, the two sat there for a moment, not sure what to do next.

“We’re definitely skipping school, and your family has no idea where you are right now.”  Kara stated, breaking the silence.

“Yes, it’s not the most ideal situation.”  Lena agreed.  “But I honestly don’t think I could go back to that school today.”

“Lena… I’m scared.”  Kara admitted quietly.  “If I go back, what are they going to do to me?”

“I won’t let them do anything.”  Lena answered immediately, her tone leaving no room for argument.  “This is all on me, you didn’t do anything.”

“When I go back-”

“I’ll be with you.”  Lena cut her off.  “This is on me.  I should have stood up, should have done something much sooner.  Standing idly by and letting them hurt you was not right.  And I’m sorry.”

“I appreciate the thought, but how are you going to protect me from the entire student body?”  Kara asked, getting a little desperate.

“Well, first thing’s first, I’m going to take that bracelet off of you and encase it in so much lead no one will ever be able to get it out.”  Lena motioned to the device.

Kara immediately hugged her wrist to her chest, fear in her eyes.

“You can’t.”

“Why not?”  Lena practically growled.  “Who cares if they know it was me?  The whole town probably thinks I’m crazy at this point.”

It took Kara a while to answer, and when she did, her voice was so quiet Lena almost missed it.  “What if I hurt someone?”

“So it’s better if they hurt you?”  Lena demanded.  “And you would never hurt anyone.”

“Not on purpose.”  Kara’s argued.  “But if someone tries to attack me, they could seriously hurt themselves.”

“Then that’s their fault!”  Lena snapped and Kara flinched.  Seeing her reaction, Lena took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.  “If someone attacks you unprovoked, you shouldn’t be held responsible.”

“I haven’t had powers in over a year.”  Kara tried a different angle.  “What if I can't remember how to control them?”

“Then we take the next three days and practice.”  Lena shot back.

“You’d put yourself in harm’s way?”  Kara asked.  “For me?”

Lena wanted to argue that Kara would never hurt her.  That she didn’t see any danger in helping the other girl control her powers, but the vulnerable look in Kara’s eyes stopped her.  If this was scaring Kara as much as Lena thought, then more arguing wasn’t going to help the situation.

“Absolutely.”

Kara’s eyes widened at the resolve in Lena’s voice, but she eventually managed a small nod.  “…okay.”  The other girl held her arm out across the table.

Lena grabbed Kara’s hand first and gave it a reassuring squeeze before focusing on the tiny panel she found yesterday.  It took no time at all to flip it open and unlock the device.

Kara gasped as the bracelet left her wrist, then looked up to Lena, who was glaring at the device in her hands.  “So, what’s first?”

“I don’t suppose you have a chunk of lead handy?”

 

**XXXXX**

 

As it turned out, Kara did not have any lead in the house.  Which shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it still irked Lena.  So she settled for jogging into the woods with a shovel and burying the damned bracelet several feet under the earth.

Once back in the house, Lena was at a loss for what to do next.  She didn’t even know the full extent of Kara’s strength.  How was she supposed to know how to help Kara control it?

“Um, I should have probably mentioned it before, but I kind of need a shower.”  Kara told her sheepishly.  Lena looked down to her own clothes, wrinkled and stained from spending most of yesterday on the forest floor.

“Okay, so step one is getting ready for the day.”  Lena decided.  “I don’t suppose I could borrow some clean clothes?”

Kara nodded and led Lena upstairs, grabbing some clothes from the dresser and holding them out to Lena.  Neither girl mentioned the fact that Kara ripped the drawer clean out of the dresser in the process.

“They may be a little short on you.”  Kara offered with an apologetic smile.

“That’s fine.”  Lena assured her.  “I know I’m a bit of a lanky mess at the moment.”

Kara chuckled quietly at that before excusing herself to go take her shower.  Lena took that time to dress, pulling on a pair of shorts that were definitely bordering on inappropriate.  Luckily Kara had given her an oversized flannel, which was plenty long for her.  She started to roll the sleeves as she paced the bedroom, brainstorming as she moved.

Suddenly she heard a loud crash from down the hall, and she practically sprinted to the bathroom door, calling to Kara as she knocked.  The door opened slowly, and Lena could see Kara’s wide eyes staring back at her.

“Kara?”

“I may have broken the sink…”

Kara raised her hand, and Lena could see a large chunk of porcelain in her grasp.

“My mom’s gonna kill me.”  Kara groaned.  “This was a terrible idea, Lena.”

“Hey, it’s okay.”  Lena reached out and tugged the piece of sink out of her hand.  “We’re going to figure this out, okay?”

Kara hugged her arms to her stomach and gave Lena what she could only describe as “puppy-eyes”.

“Besides, if we can keep the damage limited to one sink, I think we can still call this a success.”  Lena joked, earning a tiny smile from Kara.

It was then Lena realized that Kara was standing there in just a towel.  Heat immediately rose in her cheeks, and she suddenly spun on her heel.

“I’ll let you get dressed now.”  She called as she booked it back to the bedroom.

Soon enough Kara joined her, thankfully fully dressed, and the two sat down on the bed.  Lena noticed how slowly Kara was moving, as if she was scared any sudden movement would cause more damage.

“So where do we start?”  Kara asked, arms still wrapped around her midsection.

“Well, you can't go around like that forever.”  Lena held out a hand and looked at Kara expectantly.

The blonde just stared at the offered hand for so long Lena was convinced she wasn’t going to move, but eventually, very slowly, Kara’s hand extended towards Lena’s.  Lena smiled as Kara’s hand slipped into hers gently, and she gave it a reassuring squeeze.

“Now you can try to put a little pressure on my hand, and I’ll let you know when you need to stop.”  Lena prompted.

“What if I hurt you?”  Kara asked, staring at their joined hands.

“Like I said, I’ll let you know the second you need to stop.”  Lena answered gently.  “But you need to get used to how much strength you can use.”

After a tense moment, Kara gave a shaky nod, then, every so gradually, applied pressure to Lena’s hand.  It probably took her close to thirty seconds before Lena told Kara to stop, and her hand shot out of Lena’s so fast she couldn’t even track the motion.

“It’s okay, you didn’t hurt me.”  Lena assured her, placing a gentle hand on Kara’s arm, now wrapped around herself once again.  “I promise.”

That seemed to calm Kara down a bit, and her arms loosened around herself.

“Can we try again?”  Kara’s question was timid, but she looked slightly less terrified than before.

“Of course.”

The two spent the remainder of the day getting Kara used to her own strength, and Lena was glad to say the only other damage was a small dent on a door frame caused by Kara not paying attention to where she was going.  Lena even convinced Kara to give her a quick hug at the end of the day, which she was considering a massive success considering where they had started the day.  It seemed like the longer Kara had her powers, the more muscle memory came back to her.

Once Lena had begun to yawn every other sentence, she let Kara talk her into ending the practice for the day.  But as they got ready for bed, Lena had a thought.

“Kara, where did you sleep last night?”  Lena questioned as Kara all but pushed her towards the bed.

“Oh, on the couch.”  Kara shrugged.  “You seemed like you needed the bed way more than me.”

“Well, I can't steal your bed two nights in a row.”  Lena told her, turning away from the bed.

“Yes, you can.”  Kara shook her head and let out a little laugh.  “You’re a guest here.  And it’s the least I could do considering all you’ve done for me today.”

“I’m not making you sleep on the couch, Kara.”  Lena crossed her arms and fixed Kara with her best “no-nonsense” look.

“Are you that determined?”  Kara asked.

“Yes.”

“Fine, we both take the bed then.”  Kara shrugged and made her way under the covers.  “And no arguing or telling me you’ll take the couch.  We both know I could get you into this bed easy.”

The implication of what Kara had just said seemed to hit her, and she shot up and rushed to explain, a blush covering her cheeks.

“I mean cause I’m strong!  Not because I can get you into bed the other way!  I mean- Oh, Rao…” Kara’s face fell into her hands, and Lena would have found it hilarious if her own face wasn’t also on fire.

“Of course!  You didn’t- I didn’t- I mean, I know what you meant!” Lena stuttered out, trying to ignore her feelings.  Her very confusing feelings.

Deciding she was too tired to deal with this, Lena just got into the bed and turned her back to Kara, shutting off the lamp.  She heard a sigh of relief come from Kara, then felt the bed shift, as the other girl got comfortable.

“Goodnight Kara.”  Lena murmured into the dark room.

“’Night Lena.”

 

**XXXXX**

 

Lena woke suddenly in the middle of the night, and groggily tried to figure out what had roused her from her peaceful sleep.  Not a moment later she heard a small whimper come from her right, and she turned to see Kara, her face twisted up in her sleep.

“Kara.”  Lena tried to shake her gently to rouse her, but she seemed to be momentarily trapped in whatever nightmare she was experiencing.

Not knowing what else to do, Lena just found Kara’s hand under the covers and squeezed, hoping the other girl could pull some comfort in knowing someone was there for her.  Unfortunately, the nightmare seemed to be particularly terrible, and Kara’s expression became even more pained.

Lena’s heart broke for the girl, but she wasn’t sure what she could do.  She tried to wake her up again, but to no avail.  She was gripping the other girl’s hand so hard it was starting to hurt, and she realized she should probably loosen her grip.  

Except, as she loosened her own grip, she realized the pain wasn’t being caused by her squeezing Kara’s hand, but the other way around.  Lena’s eyes widened as the pressure on her hand grew more and more painful, and she realized that Kara was unconsciously clenching her fists.

“Kara, please, you need to wake up now.”  She pleaded with the sleeping girl.

Another whimper was her only answer, and Lena let out a gasp of pain.  She swore she felt her bones creaking under the pressure, and she wasn’t sure how much more her hand could take.

Pulling against the vice grip on her hand was futile, but it still made Lena feel a little better than doing nothing.  The pain was starting to become dizzying, and her heart was hammering in her chest.

“Kara!”  Lena gasped in pain.

Unfortunately, she managed to get through to the girl just as she heard the snap of something in her hand.  Kara’s eyes shot open, and she sprung away from Lena, finally releasing her hand.  Lena couldn’t do anything but cry out in pain as she cradled the hand to her chest.

Kara looked at Lena in horror, her eyes darting between the hand cradled to Lena’s chest, and her eyes.  “Lena?”

“Kara-”

“I- I hurt you?”  Kara whimpered.

“It wasn’t your fault.”  Lena managed to say through her pain.  “You were having a nightmare.  I was the one that grabbed you.”

“And look what I did to you!”  Kara shot back, still as far away on the bed as possible.

“It wasn’t on purpose.”  Lena assured her.

“But I still hurt you!”  Kara’s hands threaded into her hair.  “This is why you put that bracelet on me in the first place!”

“It was an accident.”  Lena stated.  “Accidents happen.”

“I _broke your hand_ , Lena.”  Kara was hysteric at this point.  “I _broke_ it.”

Dismissing what happened didn’t seem to be helping, so Lena took a different approach.  “Yes, you did.”

Kara let out a sob at that.

“And look at how you’re reacting.”  Lena pointed out.  Her hand was starting to pulse with pain, but she pushed past that.  “You clearly feel terrible.”

“Of course I do!”  Kara exclaimed.

“Then I forgive you.”  Lena responded.

“What?”  That shocked Kara out of her panic.

 “You hurt me, _accidentally_ , and you clearly regret it, so I’m forgiving you.”

“Just like that?”  Kara let out a humorless laugh.

“Just like that.”  Lena agreed.  “Now, if you wouldn’t mind terribly, could you figure out how broken my hand is?”

“Does it matter?”  Kara threw her hands up.

“Well, if it’s not too bad we can wrap it up and be done.”  Lena shrugged, gritting her teeth against the pain that caused.

“You need medical attention, Lena.”

“And where would I get that?”  Lena shot back.  “If we go to a doctor, then they call my parents, and we both know what a disaster that would be.”

Kara grumbled under her breath before motioning for Lena to extend the hand towards her.  She focused on it for a moment before grimacing.

“So it’s bad, then?”  Lena sighed.  Part of her assumed, considering the pulses of pain coursing through her.

“A couple of your bones are fractured.”  Kara admitted, looking sick at the damage.

“No chance of fixing this ourselves?”  Lena asked.

“I don’t have any medical training.”  Kara looked up, regret clear on her face.

“I can’t go to a hospital, Kara.”  Lena cut that argument off at the base.

“Fine, but we need help.”

“From who?”

Kara sighed and hopped off the bed.  She gave Lena a wide berth as she walked to the nightstand, picking up her phone.  She scrolled for a second before putting the phone to her ear.

“Mrs. Sawyer?  I’m sorry, I know it’s late, but I need your help.”

 

**XXXXX**

 

Not ten minutes later there was a rapid knocking at the front door.  Lena grimaced as she adjusted the icepack on her hand as she sat in the kitchen.  She heard Kara open the door, then footsteps approaching.

“Well, I can honestly say this is not how I was expecting to spend my Friday night.”  Alex chuckled as she walked towards Lena.

“I’d say this counts as going ‘above and beyond’, babe.”  Lena startled at the other voice.  She was so focused on Alex, she hadn’t even noticed Maggie Sawyer walk into the room.  Lena blinked a few times to make sure she wasn’t seeing things due to the pain, but sure enough, the detective was there, leaning against the doorway to the kitchen, giving Lena a critical look.

“No rest for the wicked.”  Alex shot back, settling herself next to Lena.

“I’m really, really sorry.”  Kara was shifting from foot to foot behind Alex.  “I wouldn’t have called if it wasn’t an emergency.”

“You were kind of vague on the phone, Kara.”  Alex said as she gestured for Lena to give her her hand.  “What exactly happened?”

“Are we all just ignoring the fact that there’s a Luthor sitting in Kara’s kitchen?”  Maggie asked, and Lena cringed at the reminder of her family.

“I figured we’d get to that after we took care of the injury.”  Alex answered as she removed the ice.  Once Lena’s hand was exposed, Alex let out a hiss in surprise.  Lena looked down to see her hand covered in mottled purple and black bruising and very clearly swollen.

Alex glanced back at Kara, who was staring at Lena’s hand with a pained expression.  “What happened?”  Alex asked as she gently felt the hand.  Lena let out a hiss of pain at the motion, and Alex immediately stopped.

“I broke her hand.”  Kara whimpered, clearly still broken up over it.  “These bones.”  She motioned on her own palm, and Lena cringed when she motioned under her pinkie, ring finger, and middle finger.

“And how did you manage to break three of her bones, Danvers?”  Maggie asked, now making her way into the kitchen, concern clear on her face.

“I took the kryptonite bracelet off of her.”  Lena informed them.

She was met with two pairs of wide eyes at her statement.

“I’m sorry, I think I’m still half-asleep.”  Alex shook her head slightly.  “Because I thought I heard you say you removed her bracelet.”

“I did.”  Lena agreed.

“Why?”  Maggie huffed, crossing her arms.  “You’re the one who put the damn thing on her in the first place.”

“Could we maybe go over all this after we treat my hand?”  Lena asked, the pain making it hard to focus on anything.

“I’m tempted to say no.”  Maggie said with a raised brow.

“Luckily for you, I’m the doctor here, not her.”  Alex scoffed as she began pulling out bandaging and a splint.  “I don’t have everything a hospital has, but Kara said you were refusing to go to one.”

“They’d call my parents.”  Lena pointed out as Alex began to wrap her hand.

“True.”  Alex agreed.

The next few minutes were spent in silence as Alex treated the break, the only noises being Lena’s occasional whimper of pain.

“I don’t really have access to strong pain medication, so you’ll have to make due with over the counter.”  Alex looked apologetic as she handed Lena a bottle of ibuprofen.

“Thank you Mrs. Sawyer.”  It still felt weird to call Alex that, but she figured calling her by her first name would be a bit odd.  Lena popped the bottle open and poured four of the tablets on to the table.  Kara suddenly appeared with a glass of water, and Lena smiled up at her.

“I have so many questions.”  Maggie spoke up as Lena took the medicine.

“Let’s start with why you took the bracelet off of Kara.”  Alex prompted.

Lena was unsure if she should tell the whole truth.  Sure, Kara believed her, but would these two?

“I was sick of being a Luthor.”  Lena finally decided to say.  “I was sick of seeing Kara being hurt and doing nothing about it.  And after how I… left school yesterday, I was afraid that the students may find a way to blame my behavior on Kara.  So I wanted her to be able to protect herself.”

“That’s quite the change of heart.”  Maggie scoffed.

“I believe her.”  Kara spoke up, and Maggie shot her a sad look.

“You somehow manage to see the best in people.  Even with how they treat you.”  She pointed out to Kara.

Kara shot Lena a questioning look, probably wanting to know if she should just be fully honest.  Lena just gave a tiny shake of her head.  These two would probably think she was lying to take advantage of Kara.

“I know you have no reason to believe me, but it is the truth.”  Lena promised.

“Assuming we believe that,” Alex cut off anything else Maggie was going to say, “that doesn’t explain why your hand is broken.”

“Um…” Lena suddenly blushed, realizing she was going to have to explain that her and Kara were sharing a bed.

“Lena was trying to wake me up from a nightmare.”  Kara explained when Lena hadn’t spoken up.  “She grabbed my hand and I wasn’t waking up, and I… I squeezed too hard.”

“Oh.”  Maggie suddenly grinned.  “That’s why she had a change of heart.”

Lena glared at the detective, cursing her for being able to read in between the lines.

“Huh?”  Alex glanced back at Maggie.

“Kara seduced Lena away from the dark side.”  Maggie teased.  “You two were sleeping in the same bed, right?”

Lena scowled back at her.  “I’d like to think I found my own way away from the views of my family.”

“That’s not a ‘no’.”  Maggie pointed out.

“She wouldn’t let me sleep on the couch.”  Kara spoke up.

“Not helping, Kara.”  Lena groaned.

“Oh!”  Alex suddenly glanced between the two girls.  “So you two are…?”

“No!”  Kara blushed, apparently realizing the full implications of Maggie’s statement.

“We’re friends.”  Lena insisted.  “Or, I’d like to think we’re friends at this point.”  She looked back to Kara.

“I think we are.”  Kara agreed, offering a small smile.

“Good.”  Lena smiled back.

“Now that we’re all on the same page,” Maggie decided to interrupt the moment, “I think that’s our cue to leave.”

“Right.”  Alex packed up her bag and looked between the two girls.  “Please be careful, you two.  I’m glad Kara has someone else on her side, but this could be a very dangerous friendship.”

“I know.”  Lena sighed, looking down at her bandaged hand.  “But I think it’s worth it.”

“Good.”  Alex smiled down at Lena, then to Kara before making her way out of the house.

“I’m taking the couch for the rest of the night.”  Kara suddenly spoke up.  “You can’t convince me otherwise.”

“Fine.”  Lena sighed, knowing a losing battle when she saw one.  “But only because I’m too tired to argue with you right now.”

 


	9. Chapter 9

Lena woke to a dull pain in her hand and an empty space next to her.  Part of her was hoping most of last night was a bad dream, but she was obviously not that lucky.  She made her way downstairs to see Kara just pulling some toast out of the toaster.

“I actually fixed it this time.”  Kara grinned as she spun around to greet Lena.  Her eyes found Lena’s injured hand, and her smile fell slightly.  “How do you feel?”

“It’s honestly not that bad.”  Lena lied as she grabbed a glass of water and took some more medicine for the pain.

“Right…” Kara clearly didn’t believe her, but she didn’t push.

“So, I think we made good progress yesterday controlling your strength.”  Lena decided to change the subject. “But if you wanted to keep practicing, I’m up for it.”

“You want to keep going?”  Kara asked, clearly surprised.

“Of course.”  Lena shrugged and went to put some jam on her toast before realizing she couldn’t really use her left hand.

“Let me.”  Kara quickly helped out.

“Thank you.”  Lena bit into her breakfast and watched Kara’s expression.

“I guess I’m okay right now.  When I’m awake, at least.” Kara shrugged.

“Can I ask what your dream was about?”  Lena didn’t want to bring up painful memories, but part of her thought she deserved at least that much information.  “You don’t have to tell me, but…”

“It was the death of my planet.”  Kara told her without hesitation. “I don’t have the dream very often, but it’s usually really bad when I do.”

“Oh Kara, I’m so sorry.”  Lena immediately felt awful for asking.

“Yeah…” Kara’s mouth quirked into a sad smile.  “I used to get it a lot right when I got here, and I’d always-”

She cut off suddenly, looking like she just remembered something important.

“You’d always?”

“I’d always go flying to cheer myself up the next day.  But I couldn’t recently due to the whole bracelet thing.”  Kara explained.

“But now you can.”  Lena realized.

“I can.”  Kara smiled at that, before a light blush colored her cheeks.

“Kara?”  Lena prompted when the other girl hadn’t continued.

“Um, I was wondering if maybe, you know because I still feel bad about yesterday, if you’d want to maybe…”

“If I’d like to what?”  Lena tried to prompt her when Kara trailed off and began to fidget.

“Maybe, you’d like to come flying with me?”  Kara asked shyly. “Only if you wanted. But I don’t really want to leave you alone here, and flying’s one of my favorite things, and I think I’d like to take you as a thank you for all you’ve done for me.”

It took Lena a second to register what Kara was asking, mostly due to her being distracted by how cute Kara was when she rambled.  But when she realized what the question was, she paused. The last time she flew with Kara was after she had been thrown off of her own building.  It wasn’t the most pleasant of memories, but she had never felt unsafe with the blonde. And if Kara wanted to share something that special to her with Lena, then Lena wasn’t going to pass that up.

“I think I’d really like that.”  Lena told her, and Kara immediately broke into a wide grin.  It was an expression Lena had so rarely seen on this version of the girl, and she knew she had made the right decision.

The two got ready quickly, Kara managing to not break any more of the bathroom in the process, and soon they were standing in the backyard, Kara narrowing her eyes up to the sky.

“One second.”  She told Lena, then zipped back into the house.  Before Lena could even wonder why, Kara came back with a pile of clothes in her arms.  “It gets cold up there.” She offered as an explanation.

Lena smiled to herself as Kara began handing her various layers to bundle up in.  The other girl had to help Lena button and zip a few of the layers, but soon Lena felt like a very cozy burrito.  She was glad Kara had given her a pair of jeans to wear today, even if they didn’t quite reach her ankles.

“So how is this going to work?”  Lena asked.

“Well, I think it would be easiest to just…” Kara moved so she was standing right next to Lena, then suddenly she found herself being bridal-carried by the blonde.  “Is this okay?”

“Yes.”  Lena’s voice squeaked at the unexpected contact, but thankfully Kara didn’t choose to comment on it.  The position was slightly awkward due to Lena’s broken hand, but Kara’s hold on her was sure, so Lena believed she would be just fine.

“If you’re uncomfortable at any time, just let me know, okay?”  Kara looked down and made sure Lena met her eyes before continuing.  “I’ll come back down the second you say so.”

Lena’s voice died in her throat at the intense look in Kara’s eyes, so she just nodded her confirmation.  And with that, Kara began to slowly lift them off of the ground. She knew how fast the hero could normally fly, so Lena was very grateful at the slow pace they were going now.

“Are you okay?”  Kara paused her ascent and asked.

“Yes.”  Lena assured her.

Kara took that as her cue to raise higher and higher into the air, eventually taking the two of them clear through the cloud layer and into the secluded world above.  Lena let out a gasp at the expanse laid out before the two, nothing but clear sky and fluffy clouds could be seen all around.

“I love it up here.”  Kara spoke up, slowly spinning to take it all in.  “I can almost forget about… everything.”

“It’s certainly very peaceful.”  Lena agreed, smiling softly.

They spent a long while just floating around where they emerged, but eventually Kara began to fly in a constant direction.

“Where are we going?”  Lena asked.

Kara smiled back with mischief clear in her expression.  “It’s a surprise.”

“I should warn you, Luthors don’t handle surprises very well.”  Lena managed to deliver the joke deadpan, one eyebrow raised. Kara started to look nervous, and Lena couldn’t help but chuckle, breaking her ruse.

“It’s a good surprise, I promise.”  Kara assured her.

After a bit of flying, they had apparently arrived at their destination, because Kara began to descend through the cloud layer, and Lena’s breath hitched at the sight before her.  Kara had managed to fly them out to open water, with no sign of civilization for miles around, just a glittering sea below.

“This is amazing.”  Lena breathed out.

“Yeah…” Kara let out a happy sigh as she floated them over the water.

The two of them spent a good long while just enjoying the new view, but as Lena looked to the horizon her brow furrowed.  The sun was already setting, but there was no way the two had spent all day out here. She couldn’t even focus of the beauty of the sunset, her mind trying to make sense of the situation.

“Kara, how long have we been flying?”  Lena asked, looking back up at the girl.

“Huh?”  Kara tore her gaze away from the sunset to look down to Lena.  “I don’t know, a few hours, maybe?”

“But we left this morning.”  Lena pointed out.

“Yeah?”

“Kara, it’s already sunset.”  She explained.

“Oh!”  Kara’s expression now became as confused as Lena’s.  “That can’t be right…” Kara muttered as she glared at the sun.

“This isn’t the first time the timing here has been off.”  Lena told Kara as she began to fly them back up to the clouds.

“What do you think it means?”  Kara asked as she turned them towards the house.

In all honesty, Lena had no idea.  Was it just because this world wasn’t actually real?  Or was the world becoming unstable? She tried to think if there were any timing issues when she first arrived, but it was already hard to focus on the one that just happened, as if the world was fighting against her pointing out the issues.

Kara let her get lost in her thoughts as she flew them back down into the back yard, but Lena could feel her concerned gaze on the side of her head the whole time.  Soon enough, Kara’s feet met solid ground and she gently set Lena back down. Lena didn’t even have time to miss the contact between the two before she heard the shouting.

“Lena!”  Her head shot up and her stomach dropped as she recognized the harsh tone of Lex.  “Get away from her you freak!” He came barreling around the corner of the house, face red with anger and eyes wild.

“Lex, what are you doing here?”  Lena demanded, instinctually stepping directly in front of Kara.  It didn’t matter if the other girl had her powers back, Lena wasn’t going to let him hurt her.

“I tried to give you time to cool off.”  Lex’s voice was low and dangerous, and Lena felt panic rising in her with each word.  “But instead I find you here, taken hostage by that monster!”

“Wait, what?”  Lena’s brain almost short-circuited at the unexpected statement.

“I won’t let it hurt you, Lena.”  Lex assured her, but there was no comfort in his tone.  “You can come home.”

“Lex, I’m here of my own choice.”  Lena told him, and he immediately shook his head.  “Please calm down and just listen.” She raised her hands in a calming gesture, but she had forgotten about her injured hand.  And once Lex caught sight of it, he erupted.

“What did you do to my sister?!”

“It- it was an accident!”  Kara took that moment to speak up, taking a half-step out from behind Lena.

At the sight of her, Lex reached behind him and pulled something out from his waistband.  Lena’s eyes widened as she registered the gun now pointed at Kara. Before she could even react, Kara had pulled Lena behind her.

“Do you think just because you forced my sister to take the dampener off, you’re safe?”  Lena heard Lex snap at Kara. “I came prepared for that.”

Somehow, Lena knew exactly what Lex meant by that.  She knew that the gun was loaded with Kryptonite bullets, and she knew that if Kara were to take even a single shot, the results were be disastrous.

So, without even thinking of what could happen to her, she spun around Kara and met her wide, panicked eyes.  The last thing she registered was the deafening sound of the gunshot before everything went black.

 

**XXXXX**

 

Lena shot up so fast she was afraid she had given herself whiplash.  Her chest was on fire, and panic was still coursing through her system.  Her brother just shot her. Her brother was trying to kill Kara. Her  _ brother _ just  _ shot her _ .

“Ms. Luthor?”  Her head snapped over to the side to meet the wide blue eyes of Kara.

Without much thought, Lena launched herself at the girl, pulling her into a desperate embrace. 

“You’re okay.”  She mumbled into Kara’s hair, so very glad that Lex hadn’t managed to hurt her.  “You’re okay.”

“Um…?  Yes?” Kara’s voice came out in a surprised squeak, giving Lena her first clue that something was wrong. 

She pulled back, about to ask Kara what was going on when she noticed something very important. It wasn’t a teenage Kara sitting at the edge of her bed, but instead a very,  _ very _ confused Supergirl. 

Lena’s eyes widened as she glanced around the room to try to figure out what was going on, and she met the startled gaze of Alex, who was holding a syringe and what Lena could only assume was her IV.

Mortified, she turned back to Kara, who hadn’t moved an inch since Lena all but threw herself at her. 

“I am so sorry, Supergirl.”  Lena leaned back and smoothed down the sheet covering her lower body, noting that her hand was still wrapped in bandages and a splint.  “I think I’m very disoriented, still.”

“Oh, right.”  Supergirl let out an awkward laugh.  “That’s understandable.”

“You have been unconscious for about 10 days, so it’s very understandable.”  Alex decided to finally speak up. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m exhausted.”  Lena answered, trying to take stock of her body.  “My hand hurts, and I’m very, very confused.”

Supergirl suddenly stood up and made her way to the door of the room, looking uncomfortable.  “I promised I’d call Kara as soon as you woke up. She’s been very worried about you.”

Lena almost told her not to go, that she knew about Kara and Supergirl.  But it wasn’t her secret to tell, and she was pretty sure Alex would have some choice words for her if she outed her sister like that.  Lena’s own anxiety wasn’t more important than Kara’s identity.

But that did leave just Alex and her in the room, the two in an awkward silence.  Lena had never spoken to Alex without Kara there to act as a buffer. Not to mention, now Lena had a confusing collection of memories of a completely different Alex.  And while there were similarities between the two versions, there were enough differences to make her head ache. Alex could at least busy herself checking on all of Lena’s vitals.  All Lena could do was sit there quietly and stew in her thoughts.

“Lena!”  Her head snapped over to the door to see a slightly disheveled Kara standing there, eyes wide.  It was probably far too soon for her to actually have gotten here, but Lena wasn’t going to point that out.  She wasn’t even conscious of the relieved smile that spread over her face at the sight.

In no time at all Kara was at her bedside, her arms half-raised before shooting a glance over to Alex.  “Can I hug her?”

“As far as I can tell, her body is fine.”  Alex told Kara, glaring at a chart. “It was just her mind affected by the serum.  Which still doesn’t explain her hand.” The last sentence was mumbled angrily, as if the question had been asked and not answered dozens of times.

Before Lena could even ask what Alex has meant by “the serum”, she found herself with her arms full of a blonde muttering a mile a minute.  All Lena could really make out was that Kara was glad she was okay, along with the occasional “I’m sorry”.

“I’m alright.”  Lena murmured as she returned the hug.  “I’m alright, and none of this was your fault.”

Kara pulled back, her eyes shiny with unshed tears, and Lena felt like her heart skipped a beat.  “I came to bring you lunch, and I found you on the floor of your office. Jess and I tried to wake you, but you didn’t react at all.”

“Your sister mentioned some sort of serum?”  Lena asked and turned to look at Alex. “I’m assuming that had something to do with my condition.”

“Yes.”  Alex glanced away from the chart to meet Lena’s eyes.  “Someone managed to get control of the ventilation system on the top floor.  They pumped in a gas that caused you to go into some sort of coma.”

Lena felt herself bristle at the thought of someone hijacking any part of her building.  “Do you have any idea who could have done this?”

“Well…” Alex suddenly looked a little unsure, glancing to Kara, then back to Lena.  “We did manage to catch them.”

“Oh?”

“Yes.  It’s how we knew what you were exposed to, exactly.  But-”

“No.”  Kara suddenly snapped.

“‘No’ what?”  Lena asked, confused at the sudden tense air between the sisters.

“Kara-”

“She doesn’t have to talk to them.”  Kara crossed her arms and huffed before turning to Lena.  “You don’t have to talk to them.”

“Talk to who?”  Lena asked, glancing between the two.  “I don’t exactly like being left out of the loop.  Especially when it involves something that happened to me.”

“The one who did this to you.”  Alex answered, glaring at Kara the whole time as if daring her to interrupt again.

“They want to talk to me?”  Lena asked, glancing at Kara.

Kara sighed and gave a tense nod.  It was then Lena finally noticed how exhausted she looked.  Lena couldn’t think of a time the Kryptonian looked anything but bright and strong.  Now, she could see bags under Kara’s eyes, could see a slump to her shoulders, and even her normally bright eyes looked dim.

Before Lena could try to check up on her friend, Alex spoke up.  “They would only give up the serum components if we agreed to let them speak to you.”

“Why would someone poison me, then give you the antidote to save me?”  Lena scoffed. “They sound like a terrible assassin.” The two other women in the room flinched at the word.  “Am I right to assume it was another attempt on my life, then?”

“It seems so.”  Alex answered with an apologetic look.  “We found several transfers into their account from corporations we traced back to both your mother and brother.”

“Then I would like to speak to them.”  Lena decided. “I want to know what they tried to do to me, and why I’m awake now.”

“You should rest, Lena.”  Kara argued. “You may have been unconscious for a while, but your mind was very active.  You need to let yourself shut down for a little bit.”

“You don’t need to tell me that.”  Lena snapped. “I’m the one that’s been dealing with a living nightmare for the last ten days!”

Kara physically recoiled at that, going as far as to stand up from the edge of the bed she was sitting on.  “So it was really terrible?”

Lena’s voice died in her throat at the look on Kara’s face.  It was too close to how she looked in the other world.

“I’m going to give you two some time.”  Alex murmured as she left, patting Kara on the shoulder before she stepped out of the room.

“Alex told me it was probably really bad.”  Kara continued once they were alone. “There were all these indicators in your blood that you were stressed.  Your heart was beating too fast, and you kept twitching, and, and-” She took a deep breath, looking up, and Lena could see tears beginning to shine in her eyes.  “And I couldn’t do anything to help. I just tried to stay with you as much as they’d let me, but I couldn’t  _ do anything _ .”

As much as Lena had been suffering in her own nightmare, she realized Kara had been tormented as well.  She was Supergirl, she always saved the day. So how did the hero feel after being told she couldn’t do anything to help her friend?  Especially after all she had already lost.

“Kara.”  Lena held a hand out to the girl.  She wasn’t mad at her, she was just so sick of not knowing what was going on.  Kara slowly made her way back to the bed, gently grabbing onto the offered hand.   “I need to know what happened to me.”

“I know.”

“And if me talking to this person is the only way to get answers, then that’s what I need to do.”  Lena continued.

Kara sighed and nodded.  “I understand. I really do.”

“But?”

“But they hurt you, and I don’t want you anywhere near them.”  Kara answered.

“Kara, you can’t protect me from everything.”  Lena tried to point out.

The other girl immediately let out an awkward laugh.  “Oh, I’m sure there’s plenty I can’t protect you from.  That’s what Supergirl’s for, after all.” Lena almost missed the grimace on Kara’s face as she dropped her gaze and adjusted her glasses.

“Right.”  Lena huffed out a little laugh, trying to put the other girl at ease.  “You’ll have to thank her for me.”

“For what?”

“For bringing you here as soon as I was awake.  I definitely needed to see a friendly face.” Lena answered, internally smacking herself at how obvious she was being.

“Oh!”  Kara went to adjust her glasses again, and Lena felt a little hope blossom in her at the blush on the other girl’s face.  “Of course. I’ll always be there when you need me.”

“Then can I ask you to come with me to talk to the one who did this to me?”  Lena asked. Normally she’d insist to do this alone, but the nightmare had shaken her deeply.  She had a feeling she’d need to keep Kara close until the memories of Lex holding that gun to her faded.

“Of course.”  Kara offered a comforting smile.

“I may need help getting up.”  Lena grimaced as she looked at the various medical devices attached to her.

“You mean now?”  Kara asked, clearly upset.

“Yes, now.”  Lena sighed. “The sooner I talk to them, the sooner I can put all this behind me.”

“Fine.  I’ll get Alex.”  Kara grumbled.

 

**XXXXX**

 

Soon enough Lena was fully detached from all the sensors and IVs hooked up to her, and was standing on her embarrassingly wobbly legs.  Kara kept hovering over her as she took her first steps in over a week, but Lena finally managed to find some semblance of balance.

“Unfortunately, this is a government black site, so you will need to be accompanied by an agent at all times.”  Alex did look genuinely apologetic as she walked with them. “Kara’s not even supposed to be here, in all honesty, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.”  Alex glared at her sister.

“Having Supergirl in my corner helps.”  Kara joked with an obviously forced airy laugh.

“I’d assume it would.”  Lena agreed, more focused on walking in a straight line than her surroundings.  She had been given some spare clothing they had lying around, and she was definitely not used to the boots they had handed to her.

Alex led them to an elevator, and Lena noticed the multitude of buttons on the panel.  A button for a basement floor was pressed, and the three found themselves in a tense silence as the elevator moved down.

“I reserve the right to shut down this conversation at any moment.”  Alex finally spoke up as they got close. “This individual is… unstable.”

“Unstable?”  Lena asked, looking to the agent.

“Mentally.”  Alex elaborated.  “They’re brilliant, but they’re also clearly insane.”

“Smart and crazy is a dangerous combination.”  Lena agreed, thinking back to Lex.

“Exactly.”

“They’re in a containment cell.”  Kara assured her before seeming to realize she shouldn’t know that.  “Right, Alex?”

Lena almost laughed at the fond eye roll that earned Kara.  “Yes.”

“Right.”  Kara put a gentle hand on Lena’s arm.  “So you’ll be perfectly safe.”

She just nodded, nervous for the upcoming conversation.  Kara and Alex wouldn’t really give her any information on what she had been infected with, exactly.  It seemed whatever it was had shaken the sisters, but that was all that she could infer. 

Lena’s hand went to grab Kara’s for comfort on instinct, and she just managed to pull it back to her own side in time.  Hand holding wasn’t exactly something this Kara and her did. But the memories of the other Kara were so recent, so hard to push out of her own head.  Lena’s stomach dropped when she noticed Kara looking at her confused, but luckily the ding of the elevator saved her from whatever she wanted to ask.

Squaring her shoulders and putting on her best indifferent mask, Lena followed Alex as she walked through the hall of cells.  Soon enough, they were standing outside a cell inhabited by a very plain looking individual in a white jumpsuit.

“You actually brought her!”  A smile spread across their face as they stood and approached the glass.

“That was the bargain, if I’m not mistaken.”  Lena stepped forward, putting herself slightly in front of the other two.

“Yes, yes, yes!”  The figure put their hands behind their back and began to rock on their heels.  “But I was sure your protector wouldn’t allow you down here.”

“It was my decision, not anyone else’s.”  Lena shot back.

“This is why I was excited to work with you.”  Their smile was starting to unnerve Lena. “You have such a strong mind, Lena.  I knew you would be able to handle my experiments!”

“You’re a scientist, then?”

“The Alchemist.”  They introduced themselves with a bow.

“The Alchemist?”  Kara parroted. Apparently this was the first time the assassin had given a title.  “Isn’t that all about turning metals into gold?”

The smile quickly twisted into a snarl as they looked at Kara.  “Change! Alchemy is about change! Perfection of materials! I perfect materials given to me. I change them to make something better!”

“Like whatever you used on me?”  Lena asked, trying to take their attention back.  She knew what Alex had meant about “unstable” now.

“Smart girl.”  The snarl faded back into a pleased smile in a flash.  “I took two existing conditions and made something  _ more _ .”

“What exactly did you make?”  Lena pressed, taking another step forward.

“I think you already know.”  The Alchemist’s head tilted and their eyes closed.

“You trapped me in a nightmare.”  Lena argued. “That’s all I know.”

In a flash they were at the glass, their hands clawed against the barrier.  The Alchemist’s eyes were wild, and their smile was now a manic grin. Lena took a reflexive step back and found her back pressed into Kara’s front.  She didn’t even have time to think about that before The Alchemist was speaking again,

“But it was so much more than that.  I took a plant from another planet and a toxin from another dimension, and made something new!”

“The Black Mercy.”  Alex supplied when the prisoner didn’t elaborate.  “And something known as Fear Toxin. A plant that traps you in a perfect world, twisted with a toxin that makes you see your worst nightmares.”

“So you made a serum that traps people in their worst nightmares?”  Lena asked, mask slipping a bit with her desperation. “Why?”

“My research was very generously funded.”  They shrugged. “As long as I used it to make you go away.”

“But I knew it was fake.”  Lena shook her head. “Your serum was flawed.”

“No!”  The Alchemist smacked the glass with a growl.  “You needed to know! It made the suffering so much worse!  Knowing you were in an alternate reality, but not knowing how to escape.”

They may be crazy, Lena thought, but they were right.  How many times did she just wish she’d wake up? How many times did she wish the dream would be over?  What would she have done if she’d been trapped there just a little while longer? Or if that bullet meant for Kara had actually met its mark?

“That was the problem with the Mercy.  The second you knew it wasn’t real, you were free.”  The Alchemist stated slowly. “And the Fear Toxin only causes hallucinations.  It still allowed you to move about freely. But together?” They cackled to themselves.  “Together they were perfect!”

“But you told these people what you did to me.”  Lena shook her head, just as confused as when she woke up.  “Why would you undo your own work?”

“Even I can realize when I’m outclassed.”  Their eyes flicked to Kara, face twisted in a grimace.  “Between your precious Girl of Steel and that mind-reading Martian, it was only a matter of time before a cure was found.”

She filed away the knowledge of a mind-reader to panic about later.  “So you were hoping for clemency?” Lena scoffed.

“I traded information for a conversation with my test subject.”  The Alchemist’s eyes were focused solely on Lena once more. “You need to tell me what you saw!  I see that you’re injured, so I have to assume any injuries carried over from the nightmare into the real world.”  They looked down to her bandaged hand. “You need to tell me how that happened. You need to tell me  _ everything _ .”

“I don’t  _ need _ to do anything.”  And with that, Lena turned on her heel and walked away.

“NO!”  She heard the roar behind her, along with several hits to the glass barrier.  “You have to tell me! I need to know how effective my experiment was!  I need to know! COME BACK HERE, LUTHOR!”


End file.
